Draft bill classifies major tokens as digital commodities, giving the CFTC clearer authority and a compliance path for institutions.
Firms may face new governance rules requiring separation of exchange, brokerage custody and trading functions.
Exchanges must list only harder-to-manipulate assets as lawmakers move toward a unified bill with industry feedback.
Ondo Finance said the Senate Agriculture Committee’s release of its section of the digital assets market structure bill marks “a step toward regulatory clarity,” offering new direction for institutions waiting for defined oversight.
The committee’s bipartisan draft outlines how agencies will share responsibilities, how consumer protections will function, and what standards tokenized instruments must meet. This development introduces the most detailed framework to date for identifying supervisory roles and setting rules for firms that want to operate with digital assets.
The draft also comes as policymakers seek to guide engagement with bitcoin, ether and tokenized financial instruments. This sets the stage for broader industry input in the coming weeks.
Jurisdiction and Expands CFTC Role
The draft assigns bitcoin, ether and several large-cap assets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by treating them as digital commodities. According to Bitwise analyst Juan Leon, this classification creates a direct path for compliance teams that need a federal statute before they can approve allocations.
He said the structure may split markets between regulated and unregulated assets, with regulated assets attracting deeper liquidity. The committee also moves to give the CFTC more latitude, requiring it to coordinate new rules with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Notably, Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber said the draft delivers clearer authority to the CFTC after years of uneven jurisdiction.
New Governance Standards
The draft introduces governance and operational separation across affiliated entities that perform different functions. According to Leon, the shift challenges the common “all-in-one” design used by many crypto exchanges.
Firms may need to separate exchange, brokerage, custody and trading desks, which aligns those entities with traditional financial models. However, the draft also lets the CFTC collect fees from regulated entities to support registration and supervision. Those fees would fund oversight of exchanges, brokers and dealers that fall under the digital commodity category.
Listing Standards and Next Steps
The draft instructs exchanges to list only assets that are not easily manipulated. This aims to reduce scams that still appear across parts of the market. MoonPay President Keith Grossman said the bipartisan nature of the draft shows broad interest in advancing the process.
However, the committee still needs industry feedback before finalizing areas related to anti-money-laundering rules and decentralized finance. Lawmakers will merge this text with the Senate Banking Committee’s draft to create one comprehensive bill.
Grayscale’s Craig Salm said federal agencies have already offered limited guidance on staking, but he added that structured legislation remains important for firms that want stable rules.
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