Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, BLOCKCHAIN—Senate Banking releases new draft of crypto market structure bill, (Jan 13, 2026)

By Lene Powell, J.D.

Ahead of a January 15 markup, the Senate Banking Committee released a revised draft of market structure legislation for digital assets.

The Senate Banking Committee has released an amended version of a bill to provide a federal regulatory framework for digital assets. Released January 12, the proposed legislation would amend existing securities laws and address tokenization, decentralized finance, customer protection, and illicit finance, among other issues.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) called it a bipartisan manager’s amendment that reflects “months of negotiations” between Senate Republicans and Democrats, both on and off the committee.

“This legislation puts Main Street first, cracks down on criminals and foreign adversaries, and keeps the future of finance here in the United States,” Scott said in a press release.

The January 12 draft has been in the works for months. Senate Republicans first released a set of principles for market structure legislation in June 2025. Scott then released initial draft legislation in July 2025 along with a Request for Information from industry stakeholders, followed by a second draft in September 2025.

The 278-page revised draft uses the same title and prefatory language as H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), which passed the House in July 2025. However, the structure is different from the CLARITY Act. There are also differences from draft legislation released by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Provisions. The bill has nine titles:

1. Title I—Responsible securities innovation. Provides definitions and directs the SEC to create exemptions for “ancillary assets” and tailor existing federal securities regulations to address digital assets. Excludes digital commodities from the definition of “security” in the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970.

2. Title II—Protecting against illicit finance. Provides for treatment of digital assets under the Bank Secrecy Act, sanctions laws, and examination requirements. Provides for treatment of digital kiosks and a report on the use of digital assets by foreign terrorist organizations and transnational organized criminals.

3. Title III—Responsible innovation in decentralized finance. Directs the SEC to promulgate rules on compliance by persons operating decentralized finance trading protocols. Directs the Treasury Department to issue guidance clarifying the applicability of economic sanctions and anti-money laundering requirements to decentralized finance. Provides for a voluntary cybersecurity program. Provides certain requirements for stablecoins and risk management intermediaries. Directs studies, including relating to digital assets mixers and tumblers, foreign intermediaries, and foreign adversaries.

4. Title IV—Responsible banking innovation. Provides for applicability of banking laws to digital assets, including permissibility of activities, portfolio margining, capital requirements, and stablecoin rewards.

5. Title V—Responsible regulatory innovation. Provides for tokenization of securities and other real-world assets. Provides for a CFTC-SEC “micro innovation sandbox,” voluntary adoption of NIST cryptography standards, and various studies and reports.

6. Title VI—Protecting software developers and software innovation. Provides for protection of software developers and a safe harbor for nonfungible tokens. Provides for the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act and the Keep Your Coins Act.

7. Title VII—Protecting customer property. Provides for customer property protections for ancillary assets and digital commodities in bankruptcy.

8. Title VIII—Customer protection. Provides for educational materials and financial literacy, as well as consultation with SIPC regarding mandatory broker-dealer disclosures to investors concerning the status of payment stablecoins and digital commodities.

9. Title IX—Other matters. Provides for a Joint Advisory Committee on Digital Assets, an SEC-CFTC Memorandum of Understanding, FinCEN appropriations, and relevant agency rulemakings within one year.

Next steps. The Banking Committee has scheduled a markup of H.R.3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 for January 15, 2026.

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