Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott plans to hold a hearing on the Crypto Market Structure Bill on January 15. However, according to the latest negotiation documents, the legislation's progress is not smooth—disagreements over four key issues remain unresolved.

**The Definition Challenge of DeFi Regulation**

The first issue is the regulatory framework for decentralized finance. The bill requires DeFi platforms to adhere to the same oversight standards as traditional financial companies regulated by U.S. federal authorities. However, the core difficulty lies in—the fundamental definition of DeFi itself is still debated, and related technical and legal issues remain unresolved. This results in regulatory enforcement standards still being vague.

**Business Conflicts Triggered by Stablecoin Yields**

The GENIUS Act explicitly prohibits stablecoin issuers from directly offering interest, but allows their affiliated companies to launch yield products and customer reward programs. This clause threatens traditional banking sectors—they believe it could weaken the competitiveness of deposit business. Some Democratic lawmakers also favor further restrictions on crypto-related yield products, leading to a tug-of-war in negotiations.

**Political Ethics and Institutional Power**

The third point of contention involves ethical standards—proposing to ban senior U.S. government officials from deriving personal benefits from crypto investment activities. Meanwhile, the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) will take a leading role in cryptocurrency regulation, but the bipartisan balance in CFTC seat allocations also needs to be negotiated and finalized.

It is clear that the key issue in this round of negotiations is not whether to regulate, but the specific approach to regulation and the balancing of interests.