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Yesterday, October 22, 2025, there were several meetings in Washington, DC. In one of those, the Senate Democrats held a roundtable with executives from the crypto industry. This was organized by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The goal was simple: to work on the market structure legislation and clarify the situation with the leaked draft from the Democrats that caused a stir in the crypto community.
We don’t know what happened during the meeting because it was behind closed doors, but later some participants talked to the media.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said Democrats need a bipartisan draft to move forward, noting that 90% of the work is done while 10% still has issues. He emphasized that the leaked draft from the Democrats caused a stir in the crypto community, particularly raising concerns about regulations on DeFi. According to Brian, centralized exchanges should be regulated, not protocols, meaning financial intermediaries should be the focus of regulation. He added that the government shutdown has not affected the progress of the market structure legislation and expressed optimism that markup could be completed before Thanksgiving to finalize
everything by December.
Similarly, Chainlink CEO Sergey Nazarov highlighted a strong commitment from Senate Democrats despite the contention and friction caused by the draft leak. He believes senators should recognize both the value of the bill and the crypto industry, which serves as an incentive to reach a commitment. Sergey noted that Democrats are mainly concerned about illicit finance. Regarding DeFi regulation, he explained that it should target intermediaries—those who perform AML/KYC checks and handle on-ramps and off-ramps. He shared data showing that illicit finance in crypto ranges from 0.1% to 0.5%, compared to 1% to 5% in traditional banking. By merging both sectors under regulatory frameworks, he expects illicit activities to diminish. However, he acknowledged that the shutdown has slowed progress. He pointed out that the meeting included CEOs from Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, and several others.
To me, it’s clear that the mood or intention is to make things work: Democrats, Republicans, and the industry are interested in building a framework. I see some obstacles, one between the industry and the Senate on how to regulate this in a way that doesn’t affect the execution of processes on the platform while public and investor rights are guaranteed. The other obstacle is just political—between the Democratic and Republican sides. However, I think the size and value of the crypto market is so relevant that it will help ease things and finally reach an agreement.
