Crypto Market Structure Slips to 2026

Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, December 17. And today, we are talking about market structure being bumped into 2026. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you wanna dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly/breakdownpod. Alright, friends. Well, we are back with maybe the most predictable news of the quarter. The market structure bill has been bumped into 2026. To the chagrin of everyone but the surprise of no one, progress has stalled on the market structure bill as congress calls it quits for the year. After weeks of intense negotiations, it seems an agreement can't be reached, and the senate markup hearing for the bill is officially postponed until 2026. A spokesperson for senate banking committee chair, Tim Scott, confirmed the news on Monday night, adding that Republicans have, quote, made strong progress with Democratic counterparts on bipartisan digital asset market structure legislation. The spokesperson commented that Scott has, quote, consistently and patiently engaged in good faith discussions to produce a strong bipartisan product that provides clarity for the digital asset industry and also makes America the crypto capital of the world. The committee is continuing to negotiate and looks forward to mark up in early twenty twenty six. It looks like we also won't be getting a new bipartisan discussion draft, which senators Lummis and Gillibrand were attempting to release by the end of last week. Now, missing this deadline and carrying negotiations into next year runs a huge risk of the bill falling by the wayside. January will be embroiled in yet another round of shutdown talks as some temporary funding measures expire at the end of the month. There's still a brief window to get things moving before the summer break, but after that, Washington will be squarely focused on the midterms. It's also not as though this bill was on the one yard line and committee simply ran out of time this year. There are still meaningful differences of opinion between the two parties that could prove irreconcilable. Last week, a written counter offer from Democrats was circulated highlighting four big disagreements. They said they want tighter ethics controls to restrain the president, tougher DeFi compliance and language that prevents security like tokens being issued under exemptions, and the fourth ask is related to preventing stablecoin yield, but it's a little unclear exactly how far either side wants to go on that issue. With momentum stalled, the Dem factions that want to stop the bill have the advantage, and they seem to be making use of it. Dave Weisberger of CoinRoutes noted the recent hit piece from the New York Times …