Crypto Crystal Ball 2026: Will Crypto Lose the Fight for a Market Structure Bill?
The crypto lobby is becoming convinced their coveted bill can’t pass Congress next year. Just how crucial is it?
In brief
- Many insiders now doubt a crypto market structure bill can clear the Senate before midterm-season gridlock.
- Some policy leaders say recent pro-crypto moves by the SEC and CFTC reduce the urgency for legislation.
- Others warn failing to pass the bill risks long-term instability for the crypto industry and lost public trust.
This year proved to be a surreal, defining, and triumphant turning point for a crypto industry that looked to be on life support barely two years ago. But many of the battles waged by the industry in the last 12 months are not over.
In fact, some are just heating up: 2026 could turn out even more consequential for crypto, on topics ranging from regulation to market movements. Here’s a peek at some key questions experts say could define the next year for crypto—and what their answers could mean for you.
We’ll start off with the question that’s been driving everyone in crypto policy nuts for months: Will the industry be able to pass its coveted market structure bill next year, or not?
Though crypto leaders notched more regulatory victories this year than almost anyone could have predicted, the crown jewel of their regulatory wishlist remains elusive. A crypto market structure bill would formally—and permanently—legalize the vast majority of token issuers and intermediaries in the United States, finally handing the industry the legitimacy it has long craved.
But in recent months, a certain pessimism has overtaken D.C.’s crypto lobby regarding the bill’s chances of passage. Numerous well-connected insiders told Decrypt they feel that—despite positive public signals—the legislation is far too complicated, and touches on too many politically sensitive issues, to pass the Senate before Congress effectively grinds to a halt this spring in anticipation of the 2026 midterms.
In an ironic twist, some of these policy leaders feel that recent aggressively pro-crypto moves from regulators like the SEC and CFTC have drained the battle for market structure of urgency.
Increasingly, industry stakeholders are arguing that with all these favorable shifts in federal regulation, there is less of a need to legislate immediately—or to pass a bill that .