The hearing room for the Senate Banking Committee was supposed to be the center of attention this Thursday. Senators were scheduled to sit down for a “markup”—a political term for taking a red pen to a bill and deciding what stays and what goes. But late Wednesday night, the schedule was suddenly cleared. The reason wasn’t a scheduling conflict or a snowstorm. It was a sharp disagreement between the very companies this law is supposed to regulate, leaving a massive piece of legislation stuck in limbo.
- Senate Banking Committee markup was suddenly cleared.
- Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev supports the bill.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong opposes the current draft.
At the center of this pause is a split between two of the biggest names in the industry: Robinhood and Coinbase. While Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is urging Congress to push the bill forward, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pulled his support, arguing the current draft does more harm than good. It is a classic case of reading the same document and seeing two different futures.
Vlad Tenev, the head of Robinhood, took to the social media platform X on Wednesday to reaffirm his support. For Tenev, this bill represents a necessary rulebook. Right now, operating a crypto business in the United States is a bit like playing a board game where the rules change every time you roll the dice. Tenev wants those rules written down in permanent ink.
Specifically, Tenev pointed out that his customers want access to “staking” and “stock tokens.” These are features that are popular elsewhere but are difficult to offer in the U.S. because regulators haven’t decided if they are legal or not.
Let’s break down what “staking” actually is. Imagine you have a savings account at a bank. You agree to leave your money in the account for a year, and in exchange, the bank pays you interest. That is basically a Certificate of Deposit (CD). Staking works on a similar principle. You lock up your cryptocurrency to help secure the network—like putting money in a vault to back the bank’s operations—and in return, you earn rewards. It is a way to make your assets work for you, rather than just sitting there.
Tenev believes that if Congress passes this bill, Robinhood can finally offer these products without looking over its shoulder for a lawsuit from the government. He wrote:
“It’s time for the U.S. to lead on crypto policy. We support Congress’s efforts to pass the market structure bill. There is still work to be done, but we see a path and are here to help [Banking GOP] and [Senate Banking Committee] get it over the line.”
The Coinbase Objection: Reading the Fine Print
On the other side of the table is Coinbase. Until recently, they were also cheering for this legislation. But on Wednesday, they hit the brakes. Why the sudden change of heart? According to sources, Coinbase reviewed the latest draft of the text and found some nasty surprises.
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, is worried that the bill creates a “de facto ban” on certain technologies. A de facto ban is like a town saying you are allowed to drive a car, but setting the speed limit to one mile per hour. Technically, you can drive, but practically, you can’t get anywhere.
Armstrong is particularly concerned about “tokenized equities.” This is the idea of taking a share of stock—like a share of Apple or Tesla—and representing it as a digital token on a blockchain. Think of it like the difference between a paper concert ticket and a digital QR code on your phone. They both get you into the show, but the digital one is easier to send, sell, or trade instantly. Coinbase believes the new bill would make this technology impossible to use legally.
Furthermore, Coinbase is worried about restrictions on DeFi. “DeFi” stands for Decentralized Finance. In the traditional world, if you want a loan or to trade currency, you go to a bank building with employees and managers. In DeFi, you use software that runs automatically. It is like a vending machine for financial services: you put your money in, press a button, and the machine does the rest without a human teller involved. Armstrong fears the bill would try to force these software programs to act like traditional banks, which simply doesn’t work.
The Referees: SEC vs. CFTC
One of the main goals of this legislation is to settle a turf war between two government agencies: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Right now, these two agencies are like two parents fighting over custody of a child. The SEC generally regulates “securities”—things like stocks and bonds where you invest money expecting a profit from someone else’s work. The CFTC regulates “commodities”—raw goods like wheat, oil, or gold.
The problem is that nobody agrees on whether cryptocurrencies are stocks or commodities. Is Bitcoin like a share of Google (SEC), or is it like a bar of gold (CFTC)? This bill tries to draw a line in the sand. It aims to give the CFTC more power over digital assets, which the industry generally prefers because the CFTC is seen as a more modern regulator. However, Coinbase worries the current draft still leaves the SEC with too broad a role, allowing them to continue their aggressive enforcement actions.
The Political Obstacle Course
So, what happens next? The process of turning a bill into a law is long and messy. The House of Representatives already passed their version of this legislation back in July. Now, it is the Senate’s turn.
The Senate Banking Committee, led by Senator Tim Scott, was supposed to mark up the bill on Thursday. “Markup” is the phase where committee members sit in a room and vote on amendments—adding a sentence here, deleting a paragraph there. It is the final polish before the bill goes to the full Senate floor.
Because of the disagreement from industry giants like Coinbase, that meeting was pulled. The Senate Agriculture Committee also postponed their session to late January. This delay buys time for lobbyists and executives to argue their case and try to change the text.
Even if the Senate committees agree, they have to merge their different versions into one big bill. Then the full Senate has to vote on it. Then, they have to reconcile their version with the one the House passed. Only after all that does a final version land on President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature.
Optimism Remains
Despite the delay, not everyone is pessimistic. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple (another major crypto company), is taking the role of the diplomat. He believes the issues can be fixed.
“[This move] on market structure is a massive step forward in providing workable frameworks for crypto, while continuing to protect consumers,” Garlinghouse wrote. “We are at the table and will continue to move forward with fair debate.”
A source close to the situation told reporters that Coinbase isn’t walking away permanently. They believe the problems in the text are fixable and plan to “get back to work” to rewrite the problematic sections before the next hearing.
For the average person watching from the sidelines, this might look like boring bureaucratic infighting. But the outcome matters. If they get this right, it could make buying, selling, and using digital money as safe and easy as using a credit card. If they get it wrong, the innovation—and the jobs that come with it—could move overseas, leaving the U.S. stuck in the financial past.
