US market structure bill faces weeks of delay as focus shifts to housing: Bloomberg

The U.S. crypto market structure bill will likely face several weeks of delay as key members of the Senate Banking Committee redirect their efforts toward housing issues, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that lawmakers are looking to prioritize legislation that implements President Donald Trump's push to bar large institutional investors from buying out single-family homes. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to restrict such investors from competing with individual home buyers. The rising concerns over U.S. housing costs were part of the reason Republicans lost a number of key elections last year, the report said.

Due to this shift in focus, the crypto legislation may be further delayed until late February or March. The Senate Banking Committee has pushed back the key markup hearing, amid clashing opinions on the bill's language on different aspects of the digital asset economy.

Notably, Coinbase, one of the largest crypto donors for the Trump administration, pulled its support for the banking committee's draft bill text last week. Its CEO, Brian Armstrong, said the company took issue with the bill limiting stablecoin yield, which favors the U.S. banking sector over crypto companies.

The further delay, however, provides crypto companies more time to establish a version of the bill that can win wide support, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its version of the market structure legislation on Wednesday evening, ahead of the planned markup hearing on Jan. 27. The committee's Republican chair, Sen. John Boozman, said that the committee did not reach an agreement on "fundamental policy issues."

The two committee versions must eventually be merged for a Senate floor vote, where a 60-vote threshold requires unanimous Republican support plus some Democratic support. 

Earlier this week, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, urged a prompt passage of the market structure legislation before it loses momentum under the current crypto-friendly administration.

"Let's keep working to improve the product, recognizing that compromises will need to be made in order to get 60 votes in the Senate, but let's not let perfect be the enemy of the good," Witt said.