Top crypto execs met with U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday, demanding movement on a stalled bill that would set the rules for how digital assets are handled.
Attendees included Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Senator Chuck Schumer from New York. Other industry names like Kraken co-CEO David Ripley and Uniswap Labs’ Hayden Adams were present.
Nazarov said this wasn’t the usual roundtable. “It was definitely some more senior senators speaking at once,” he said. “They realize the economic value of the industry is high, so they need to address how they are going to deal with it, they need to address it correctly.”
Crypto industry demands answers
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov joined a dozen leaders in a nearly three-hour sit-down and two separate meetings, first with Democrats, then with Republicans.
The first session, lasting about an hour and a half, included questions from Democratic lawmakers about decentralized finance and illicit use of crypto.
Schumer joined briefly. Nazarov said the tone was serious, and that lawmakers seemed focused on figuring out how to engage with the space without losing control.
The second meeting ran for just over an hour and was with Republican lawmakers. According to Nazarov, they were much more direct in their support. The central topic in both rooms was the same: the market-structure legislation, which was supposed to go to markup in late October. But with the federal government in shutdown mode, nothing’s moved.
The bill aims to create rules that separate commodities from securities and assign clear roles to regulators. That’s critical for companies like Kraken and Coinbase, who want to know which agencies they’ll be dealing with and what compliance looks like. Right now, that clarity doesn’t exist.
“The meeting was productive, with stakeholders providing feedback and reaffirming support for a bipartisan approach,” said Jeff Naft, spokesperson for the Senate Banking Committee’s Republican side. He also pushed Democrats to commit to a markup date and stop dragging their feet.
Earlier this year, both parties managed to pass a stablecoin bill, which was signed by President Donald Trump in July.
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