The US senators’ bench has submitted more than 75 amendments to the draft bill. The major cryptocurrency market structure bill is scheduled for markup this week. The proposed changes focus on legislative regulations on stablecoin yields and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
The Senate Markup Hearing
The Senate Banking Committee will be holding a markup hearing on Thursday, 15 January 2026. This committee will be discussing and debating the amendments, casting votes on whether the mentioned amendments should be adopted, and ultimately voting on whether to advance the bill.
A similar hearing for the Senate Agriculture Committee has been rescheduled for late January. The base text was completed close to Monday midnight, and since then, lawmakers and lobbyists have been studying the details and their impacts or benefits.
The Bipartisan Take on Amendments
Certain amendments in the bill apparently have bipartisan support. Senator Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks have, according to the sources, offered three modifications together, in which two are targeting the section of the bill mentioning the stablecoin rewards. Their alterations to language are aimed at preventing providers from offering yield solely for holding stablecoins, such as USDC or USDT.
It would remove the word “solely” from that prohibition and add enhanced reporting and risk-disclosure requirements, reflecting the bipartisan concern about limiting passive income opportunities in crypto markets.
Another edit in the draft would modify the reporting system, adding requirements for risk guidance yielding. Many other edits focus on the section about rewards in the bill. But whether the lawmakers have come to a bipartisan compromise on issues the Democrats had brought up earlier, during the process of negotiation, is unclear.
Senator Chris Van Hollen proposed an amendment, which demanded an “anti-corruption provision.” Another amendment was about an “anti-touting requirement”, making it mandatory to disclose the financial interests. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester made an amendment that addresses quorum requirements.
DeFi and Definitions Under Debate
Beyond yield rules, lawmakers are also debating how the legislation would treat DeFi ecosystems, with decentralized protocols that promote functions like lending, trading, and liquidity provisioning without traditional intermediaries. Some amendments would tweak how DeFi services are defined and regulated, while others seek to adjust definitions of digital-asset tools like mixers and tumblers used for transaction anonymization.
The bill already includes provisions aimed at DeFi oversight and developer protections, but industry observers note that the strength of those protections is a key point of negotiation.
What’s Next
Given the volume of proposed changes, more than 130 amendments, most of the edits are expected to be voted out or negotiated down by the committee during the voting process, set to happen on Thursday.
The Banking Committee’s markup session will be a crucial step toward shaping a Senate crypto bill that some see as the most comprehensive yet. The outcome of amendment votes will influence whether and how the measure moves forward, setting up further debate with the House of Representatives and raising questions about how digital assets will be regulated in the U.S. in the years to come.
