The United States Senate Agriculture Committee revealed, this Wednesday, January 21, the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, an updated version focused on commodities that complements and competes with the proposed CLARITY Law (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act).
This new initiative seeks to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) full authority over spot trading of cryptoassets like bitcoin (BTC), reshaping the regulatory landscape at a time of growing political pressure and presidential promises.
Republican Senator John Boozman, chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, released the document on Wednesday night. The text represents an evolution of a previous bipartisan draft, enriched with contributions from various stakeholders. The urgency of the issue is underlined by scheduling a markup session (discussion and amendment) for January 27 of this year.
In a statement, Boozman acknowledged that differences with his Democratic colleagues remain, but highlighted progress. «While differences remain on key policy issues, this bill builds on our bipartisan draft and incorporates stakeholder input. «It represents months of work.»
The focus of this proposal is on the intermediaries of commodities digital. Requires registration of bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers and other services that manage asset custody, execute orders or manage margins.
It is noteworthy that the legislative text does not seek to regulate self-custody wallets or non-custodial decentralized finance (DeFi) interfaces, limiting its scope to entities that take custody or directly control transactions.
A regulatory race with two fronts
With the appearance of the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act (Agriculture Committee, CFTC jurisdiction), it now competes in the Senate with the CLARITY Law proposal, previously presented by the Banking Committee chaired by Republican Tim Scott.
This initiative addresses the values (securities) under the supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), combines with the Genius Act for stablecoins, and prevents broader financial risks.
The Banking Committee’s markup session was postponed in January after receiving criticism, including the withdrawal of support announced by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, as reported by NoticiasVE. However, it is likely that the law to regulate the cryptocurrency market in the United States will be delayed for at least several weeks.
According to Bloomberg, key lawmakers are focusing their attention on potential housing legislation to support President Donald Trump’s push to improve housing affordability. As such, the committee is likely to further postpone consideration of important digital asset legislation until late February or March.
Trump’s Davos promise
The chances of the United States implementing a comprehensive regulatory framework for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies soon appear moderate, although a recent presidential pledge could speed up the process.
Donald Trump, in his speech in Davos on January 21, 2026, promised to sign “very soon” a digital asset market structure law, with the aim of position the United States as the world capital of cryptocurrencies and counter China.
«Now Congress is working very hard on crypto market structure legislation, Bitcoin, all that, which I hope to sign very soon,» Trump said.
The fast track to approval involves markup sessions in Senate committees in January or February 2026. The Agriculture Committee plans to vote on January 27, and the Banking Committee could reschedule its session if it can resolve the disputes.
This would be followed by a vote in the full Senate, reconciliation with the House version and finally sending it to the president. Bipartisan support and pressure from figures like Trump could speed up this process, reducing it from years to just months.
One estimate suggests that the bill It could reach the president’s desk for signature between March and June 2026. Sources indicate a 50 percent chance of passage in the first semester if the committees manage to advance in January, although delays could extend the process until the end of 2026 or even 2027.
The countdown continues to define the regulatory future of cryptocurrencies in the world’s largest economy.