House Democrats are weighing a crypto market structure bill for the next Congress that could expand SEC oversight and revive customer protections proposed by Rep. Maxine Waters, journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X Nov. 4.
Terrett said her account drew on three industry sources who had spoken with Democratic staffers. The discussions could build on Rep. Maxine Waters’ 2025 Crypto Investor and Consumer Bill of Rights amendment and provisions Democrats and Republicans negotiated in the Senate. Her report said the proposal could give the SEC a larger part in supervising crypto markets, narrow the CFTC’s role and add ethics provisions affecting President Donald Trump and other federal officials. It gave no draft text or introduction date.
The oversight question matters because the House-passed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 generally placed digital-commodity trading and related intermediaries under Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) supervision, while leaving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authority in defined areas, according to a House Financial Services Committee summary.
Waters’ amendment sought customer support available around the clock and coverage comparable to that of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. It also proposed fiduciary and best-execution standards, limits on trading ahead of clients, custody arrangements designed to protect assets if a firm entered bankruptcy, withdrawals within 24 hours and monthly reserve reports with auditor attestations. The House Rules Committee rejected, 4-8, a motion to make the amendment eligible for consideration, so those provisions were not part of the House-passed measure.
The House approved the CLARITY Act, H.R. 3633, by a 294-134 vote on July 17, 2025. On Sept. 15, the Senate’s effort to begin consideration failed 49-50. That was a procedural vote, not a vote on final passage.
Democrats won control of both chambers in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the Associated Press reported. The new Congress is scheduled to convene Jan. 3, 2027. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who opposed moving the bill forward in September, said, “The ethics provisions in this bill are simply too thin.”
