Coinbase CEO expects market structure bill markup ‘in a few weeks’

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just dropped a bombshell on the crypto market structure bill — and now he's saying we might see a markup in "a few weeks." This comes less than 24 hours after he publicly pulled Coinbase's support for the CLARITY Act, causing the Senate Banking Committee to postpone their Thursday markup session.

In a Thursday CNBC interview straight from the US Capitol building, Armstrong explained why they had to hit pause: "We developed this concern that if [the bill] went into a markup, the only way to edit some of that base text would have been through an amendment, and amendments had already been submitted." Translation: they saw potential disaster for regular American crypto users if the bill went through as-is.

Here's the tea: Republican lawmakers initially thought they'd have this CLARITY Act signed into law by 2026. But the crypto industry is split — banks, experts, and now Coinbase are all raising red flags about DeFi provisions, payment stablecoin interest rules, and the messy SEC vs. CFTC regulatory turf war.

Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto advocacy org The Digital Chamber, told Cointelegraph: "Inaction is unacceptable. We cannot afford to walk away from the table at a moment when clarity is within reach. Market structure must move forward, and the only path to longstanding policy is getting back to the negotiating table and finishing the job."

Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee — the other body handling this market structure bill — is still planning to drop their draft legislation on Jan. 21 with a markup hearing scheduled for Jan. 27. As of now, committee Chair John Boozman hasn't announced any changes to this timeline.

Senator Tim Scott, who chairs the Banking Committee, called the markup postponement a "brief pause" and said there are still "good faith" bipartisan discussions happening. But with senators heading into a state work period next week, any potential markup is likely pushed to at least late January.