Senators pitch more than 75 amendments for crypto bill, including on yield, DeFi sections

U.S. senators have filed over 75 amendments ahead of this week's landmark crypto market structure legislation hearing, according to a document detailing the provisions obtained by CoinDesk.

These pitches for changes in the draft bill range from prohibiting stablecoin yields entirely to blocking "public officials from profiting from crypto interests" to modifying how digital asset mixers and tumblers are defined, and they're being offered by senators from both the Republican and Democrat parties.

The Senate Banking Committee is holding a Thursday markup hearing, where lawmakers will debate amendments, vote on whether to adopt any of them and ultimately vote on whether to advance the underlying bill. A similar hearing from the Senate Agriculture Committee was rescheduled to late January. The base text of the Banking Committee's bill was released close to midnight on Monday, and lawmakers and lobbyists have pored over the details since then.

Some of these amendments appear to have bipartisan backing; Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks offered three together, two of which appear targeted at the stablecoin rewards section of the bill. One amendment would remove the term "solely" in the base text which currently reads, "a digital asset service provider may not pay any form of interest or yield (whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration) solely in connection with the holding of a payment stablecoin."

Another amendment would modify reporting and add risk guidance requirements to yield. Multiple other proposed amendments similarly take aim at the stablecoin rewards section of the draft text, including a few that would eliminate yield entirely.

In a typical congressional markup, most amendments tend to flame out. Many of them could also be dropped according to deals struck in the room. So the vast majority of this lengthy list is likely destined for the cutting-room floor.

What isn't clear is if lawmakers have come to a bipartisan compromise on issues Democrats had raised earlier in the negotiation process. Chief among these is an ethics issue Democrats have had with President Donald Trump and his family's ties to crypto. They formally laid out this concern in a document last fall. Though Senator Ruben Gallego was said to have led some of the negotiations on ethics provisions, none of his amendment descriptions suggest he's pushing one on that topic.

However, Senator Chris Van Hollen proposed an amendment which called for an "anti-corruption provision," along with another "anti-touting requirement mandating disclosure of financial interests."

A Democratic aide told CoinDesk on Tuesday evening that negotiations around ethics are still happening, but no deal or agreement had been reached yet. The aide described ethics as "one of a couple sticking points in these talks."

Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, meanwhile, proposed an amendment addressing "quorum requirements," speaking to Democrats' concern that Trump has not nominated any Democrats to join what are meant under the law to be bipartisan commissions helming the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both regulatory agencies are currently run solely by Republicans.

According to the document, Democratic Senators Gallego, Alsobrooks, Blunt Rochester, Jack Reed, Andy Kim, Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto, Elizabeth Warren and Van Hollen offered amendments before Tuesday's deadline. On the Republican side, Tillis, Mike Rounds, Bill Hagerty, Pete Ricketts, Katie Britt, John Kennedy, Cynthia Lummis, Kevin Cramer and Tim Scott filed provisions.

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UPDATE (Jan. 14, 2026, 02:38 UTC): Adds additional detail.

CORRECTION (Jan. 14, 02:42 UTC): Corrects number of amendments.