Congress Is Back From Break

Here’s what we’re looking for now that Congress is back from summer recess and we enter the final four months of 2025.

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The narrative

Welcome to the last four months of 2025. Here’s what we’re looking for in the final third of this year.

Why it matters

Crypto already got one major bill this year — the GENIUS Act addressing stablecoins — but the bigger market structure bill remains a work-in-progress. Congress is back from summer recess but there are other issues it has to deal with, including a funding bill deadline at the end of the month.

Breaking it down

In the legislative branch, all eyes are on market structure legislation. While the House of Representatives passed the Digital Assets Market Clarity Act (Clarity Act) with overwhelming bipartisan support earlier this year, the Senate has so far gone its own route, with the Senate Banking Committee publishing multiple drafts defining “ancillary assets” and working toward creating guidelines for the broader crypto sector.

While the Banking Committee has published several drafts — including one late Friday — the Senate Agriculture Committee has not yet gone that far. Any legislation will need support from both committees, given the Banking Committee oversees the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Agriculture Committee oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Moreover, this bill will need bipartisan support, given the 60-vote threshold it will need to advance out of the Senate. Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott set a Sept. 30 deadline for passage, but it’ll be a heavy lift, given the myriad other concerns the Senate has right now.

The federal regulators, for their part, are also moving swiftly. On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission published a joint statement on spot trading of crypto by registered firms, saying these companies should ask the regulators for guidance but that certain assets were okay to trade (though it did not name these assets).

On Thursday, the SEC published a public agenda addressing its near-term priorities with a number of crypto-related action items. The SEC aims to propose a rule on selling crypto assets by April, as well as possibly address a safe harbor.

And on Friday, the SEC and CFTC published a joint statement announcing they would continue working to “harmonize” their efforts around crypto regulation. To that end, there will be a joint roundtable on Sept. 29.

Wednesday

• 12:00 UTC (8:00 a.m. ET) CoinDesk is holding a policy and regulation event in Washington, D.C. Come say hi.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See ya’ll next week!