Senate Banking Committee Historical markers opened Thursday morning in H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, moved the most comprehensive attempt at federal currency regulation in American history toward a committee vote.
The session — marked by sharp partisan exchanges, procedural disputes, and targeted Republican wooing of cross-party Democrats — convened against a tough deadline: If the bill did not clear committee approval before the Memorial Day holiday, the entire legislative calendar would expire. Repeats.
Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) opened by pitching the bill as a correction for years of regulatory failure.
“For many years, the digital frontier has been trapped in a regulatory gray area,” he said. “Developers, entrepreneurs and investors have been left in a state of uncertainty. They have faced confusion and enforcement actions when the government should instead have been formulating clear rules of the road.”
Scott structured the legislation around three pillars: consumer protection, preserving American innovation, and national security.
He acknowledged that the bill had evolved significantly through negotiations — “since June of last year, we have added 33,000 words and 219 pages to make this legislation as bipartisan as humanly possible” — and acknowledged that Republicans did not get everything they wanted.
Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered a frontal attack. She started not with digital assets, but with grocery prices, overdraft fees, and credit card interest rates — consumer concerns she said the commission should address instead.
“We are spending our time working on a bill written by the cryptocurrency industry for the cryptocurrency industry,” Warren said.
“Nothing is included in this bill that has not been approved by the cryptocurrency industry.” She cited a CoinDesk poll that showed cryptocurrencies were at the bottom of voters’ priorities, with only 1% of respondents identifying them as their top concern.
Warren then made five charges against the bill: that it would create a loophole in securities laws that have protected investors since 1929; Declaring an open season to combat consumer fraud by anticipating protection measures at the state level; repeating the mistakes of 2008 by allowing banks to load risky crypto assets; Deepening weaknesses in national security; And it does nothing about what it called the Trump administration’s cryptocurrency corruption.
“Since taking office last year, the president and his family have received at least $1.40 one billion “In gains from cryptocurrency trades alone,” she said.
A procedural battle before the first vote
Before the amendments were called, disagreement over which ones would be heard consumed the opening minutes. Warren said more than a dozen Democratic amendments had been ruled out before the session began — including one requested by the National Sheriffs’ Association to close a money-laundering loophole for cartels, and another from community banks seeking to prevent deposit runs.
She told Scott directly: “You alone decide which amendments will be introduced and which will be deleted,” and called on him to cancel the rulings from the floor.
Scott responded, attributing the situation to Warren’s staff, who he said objected to a Republican amendment on technical language, prompting a comprehensive review of all amendments offered. He admitted to throwing at least one Republican amendment in the process.
“I tried to make sure both sides had a chance,” Scott said. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wis.) requested formal clarification on the ruling, setting off a procedural exchange with Scott that underscored the shaky foundation of the markup on which more than 130 amendments had been filed.
Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) offered a succinct response: “The definition of working together on labels is to allow amendments to be called up and voted on.”
Loomis: “The hardest piece of legislation I’ve ever worked on.”
Lummis, the Senate’s most stubborn advocate for the bill, offered a defense that was equal parts political summary and personal testimony.
“I served 14 years in the Wyoming State Legislature, eight years as state treasurer, and now 14 years in Congress,” she said. “This is the most difficult legislation I have ever worked on.”
She said former Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the same thing.
Loomis cataloged the bill’s anti-illicit finance provisions in detail: risk-based screening standards, expanded special measures authority for the Treasury Department, mandatory annual reporting on foreign jurisdictions’ anti-money laundering compliance, frequent Treasury reporting on offshore stablecoins, insider resale restrictions, and a federal regulatory floor for cryptocurrency kiosks — the last of which received approval from AARP, which cited FBI data. an offer There have been over 13,460 fraud complaints filed at cryptocurrency kiosks and $389 million in losses in 2025 alone.
It brought Warren’s national security argument back to her. “The risks that I talked about are there now — at the moment — because there is no regulatory framework,” Loomis said. “There is no way now that this industry can protect good actors, and detect, screen and punish bad actors.”
She concluded her speech with a word of humanity: The bill would allow ordinary people to transfer money faster and cheaper, provide a level financial playing field regardless of geographic location, and protect survivors of domestic violence and political refugees who can store their savings in Bitcoin.
“This is an innovation that provides individual freedom and individual savings,” she said.
Both Scott and Loomis used their time to name individual Democrats — Warner, Cortez Masto, Gallego, Warnock, and Albrooks — who contributed to the nine-month negotiating process of the bill.
The admissions were deliberate: With 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats on the committee, and with the 60-vote threshold required in the Senate, bipartisan support was not optional.
The amendment is still fighting
Sen. Mike Rounds’ (R-S.D.) proposal to create an AI regulatory sandbox for financial companies passed 15-9, with Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Andy Kim joining Republicans in support — an early sign that some Democrats are still open to compromise.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly failed to rewrite the legislation. Its amendments targeting token asset disclosure, DeFi sanctions linked to terrorist financing, and banking cryptocurrency activity fell by 11 to 13, largely along party lines.
During the debate on DeFi sanctions, Warren cited the Treasury Department’s 2022 sanctions on Tornado Cash and warned that Iran could use cryptocurrencies to collect tankers. expenses Through the Strait of Hormuz. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), seen as a potential crossover vote, ultimately opposed the measure.
A separate amendment from Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) directing the SEC and CFTC to reconsider portfolio margin rules passed by an 18-6 vote with broad bipartisan support.
Coding is ongoing and can be followed here.
