Overview

• A coalition of 12 Senate Democrats unveiled a seven‑pillar plan that would grant the CFTC exclusive authority over non‑security spot crypto markets and clarify the SEC’s role for tokenized securities.
• The framework would require platforms serving U.S. users to register with FinCEN as financial institutions, adopt AML/CFT and sanctions compliance, and direct regulators to craft oversight for DeFi.
• Ethics provisions seek to bar elected officials and their families from issuing, endorsing or profiting from digital assets while in office and to mandate public disclosure of crypto holdings, citing concerns about the president’s family ventures.
• The Democrats also call for bipartisan commissioner quorums at the SEC and CFTC and additional agency resources, responding to vacancies and recent firings of Democratic commissioners at independent agencies.
• Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis said they still aim to pass market‑structure legislation by year‑end as committees advance work, while House Republicans press the Senate to take up the GOP‑backed CLARITY bill and disputes persist over items like ancillary‑asset language and the scope of AML rules.