Crypto policy in Washington crossed a meaningful line this week after lawmakers pushed long-debated market structure legislation further than it has ever gone in the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee voted 12–11 along party lines to advance its version of a digital asset market structure bill. That may not sound dramatic, but it’s the furthest this kind of legislation has ever made it in the Senate after years of false starts, rewrites, and heavy lobbying from the industry.

What the bill does, at its core, is put the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in charge of large parts of the crypto market, including spot commodities like Bitcoin. That would be a big change for the CFTC, which has traditionally focused on futures and derivatives rather than overseeing the underlying assets themselves.

Committee Chairman John Boozman called the vote real progress after months of work, while also making it clear the bill is not locked in. Democrats on the committee weren’t ready to go along, arguing that the legislation still needs stronger guardrails… especially around ethics and conflicts of interest.

Ranking Democrat Amy Klobuchar said talks aren’t over and suggested changes could still bring the bill closer to something both parties can support.

Those changes may end up being essential. The bill still has to get through the Senate Banking Committee, where a similar effort has been stuck. One of the biggest sticking points there is whether crypto platforms should be allowed to offer rewards or yield tied to customer holdings… something banks strongly oppose and lawmakers can’t seem to agree on.

Ethics came up repeatedly during the Agriculture Committee’s debate. Senator Cory Booker warned that letting lawmakers and senior officials stay financially involved in crypto while writing the rules damages public trust. Proposals to limit that behavior were shot down, with Republicans saying those questions fall outside what the committee is supposed to handle.

The White House is still trying to keep the process alive, with another meeting planned that includes lawmakers, regulators, crypto companies, and banking groups. The clock, however, is starting to matter more as Congress balances funding fights and edges closer to the midterm elections.

So while the vote was meaningful, it didn’t settle much. It showed the process is moving, but it didn’t answer how (or if) this bill becomes law.

The crypto industry already picked up a win with stablecoin legislation. Getting market structure rules across the line will be harder, and it hinges on if lawmakers can agree on something sturdy enough to survive a full Senate vote.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Ethereum and Bitcoin as mentioned in the article.