Senate Agriculture Committee advances digital asset bill as Trump’s crypto ties block bipartisan support

Broad crypto market structure legislation advanced out of a key Senate committee on Thursday on a party-line vote, with Democrats citing President Donald Trump’s crypto interests as a major obstacle to bipartisan support.

The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 12-11 for its version of a crypto market structure bill, signaling divides over Trump and his family’s crypto ventures. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee is viewed as being more collaborative than its Senate Banking Committee counterparts, and during Thursday’s hearing, there was a push from both sides of the aisle to get a bill done. 

Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, cited work done between Republicans and Democrats on the committee over the past few months, including a bipartisan discussion draft released in November, though the situation shifted after the holidays, he said.  

“But then I come back to Washington and start the year with the news that my Republican colleagues were walking away from the bipartisan process that produced the draft,” Booker said on Thursday. 

“Let’s get back to work,” Booker added. “We can finish this in the next week or two in a bipartisan way.” 

Trump conflicts debate

The Senate Agriculture Committee released its bill text last week that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission broader oversight over the crypto industry and give wins for decentralized finance, such as protecting noncustodial software developers and infrastructure providers.

Last week, lawmakers offered up several amendments to the bill text, including language addressing President Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest. Bloomberg recently estimated that Trump has raked in about $1.4 billion from his crypto ventures, including from DeFi and stablecoin project World Liberty Financial. The Trump family also holds a 20% stake in the mining firm American Bitcoin.

Trump’s crypto foray has come up over the past year, ahead of talks to pass a stablecoin bill into law and continues to be a sticking point for many Democrats.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-CO, who offered that amendment, said the issue “strikes at the core of our democracy.”

“This amendment is not about crypto or even particularly about President Trump,” he said. “It’s about returning to a system of government and ethics that we thought the American people deserved.” 

That amendment did not get adopted during Thursday’s hearing. 

Chair Boozman said he appreciated Bennet’s concern, but said the issue around elected federal officials and their family members owning crypto is beyond the bill in front of the committee and needs more input from other members. 

Other amendments, including one to address preventing fake transactions at “digital asset kiosks,” were also not adopted on Thursday. 

What comes next

With the Senate Agriculture Committee’s bill passing, the Senate Banking Committee would be up next to hold its hearing to markup its version.

However, that process has been rocky after its markup was pulled at the eleventh hour after Coinbase withdrew its support, citing concerns over the treatment of tokenized equities, DeFi, roles for the Securities and Exchange Commission and CFTC, and a looming issue — how to treat stablecoin rewards.

After the Senate Banking Committee advances its version, it will have to be combined into one bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee before being sent to the full Senate for a vote.

There, 60 votes are needed to pass it, meaning that all Republicans and some Democrats would have to be in support of it. That’s unclear, given the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version does not have Democratic support. 

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