Overview
- Democrats won majorities in both the House and Senate in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, giving them committee chairs and subpoena power when the new Congress convenes in January.
- The industry-backed CLARITY Act remains stalled after a Sept. 15 Senate procedural vote that fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to begin consideration and will expire on Jan. 3 unless revived in the lame-duck session.
- House and Senate Democrats plan oversight probes of the Trump family’s crypto ventures with a focus on World Liberty Financial, the USD1 stablecoin and the TRUMP memecoin, and those probes will use subpoena authority to seek documents and testimony.
- House Democrats are discussing a new market-structure bill built around Rep. Maxine Waters’ consumer-protection proposals that would prioritize SEC supervision, require custody and proof-of-reserves safeguards, and add ethics limits on officials’ crypto activities.
- Independent of Congress, the SEC and the CFTC are advancing rulemaking now—including the SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets and a custody framework and the CFTC’s consultation on retail crypto commodity transactions—which will shape markets in the near term.