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📅 February 17 - United States | Politics may be the final obstacle to historic crypto reform. According to TD Cowen, the dispute over conflict of interest rules—which would include prohibiting certain digital asset transactions for high-ranking officials and their families—is stalling negotiations.

📖The debate centers on whether digital assets should be regulated as securities by the SEC or as commodities by the CFTC, but TD Cowen argues that the real core of the impasse is partisan fear of leaving the financial positions of the president and his family untouched.
The latest vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee demonstrated the magnitude of the impasse: no Democrat supported the measure due to concerns about Trump's connections to the sector.
At the same time, pressure from industry groups and the need for clear rules are pushing towards a compromise that guarantees market stability and regulates hot topics such as the performance of stablecoins.
TD Cowen suggests that a tactical concession—filling Democratic seats now in exchange for implementing contentious restrictions after the next inauguration—could be appealing to both sides because it would allow a future Democratic president to reshape the regulatory agenda without immediate new appointments, giving industry and Congress time to solidify technical frameworks.
Political mathematics is also practical: by law, commissions such as the SEC and the CFTC must include at least two commissioners from the minority party, but today both bodies lack Democratic representatives; The CFTC has four vacancies and the SEC has two.
TD Cowen adds that without the president's "personal" intervention to push through appointments or difficult concessions, the project could stall even further, although the firm estimates a 60% chance that the project will become law in 2026 if a negotiated path is found.
Beyond the raw politics, thorny technical questions remain: how to treat stablecoin performance, whether ETFs that incorporate staking are admissible, and what role traditional players already trading in crypto markets will play.
The clock is ticking, and negotiations will continue between lobbyists, regulators, and Capitol Hill offices, where every political concession could be the key to defining the regulatory architecture of the next decade.

Topic Opinion:
The willingness to negotiate implementation timelines and names demonstrates that the political solution is viable—but fragile: if regulatory stability is prioritized over short-term political gain, the United States could finally offer coherent rules that attract institutional capital.
💬 Do you think agreeing to postpone conflict-of-interest rules is a reasonable price to pay to advance the law?

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