Members of the Senate Banking Committee have filed more than 100 amendments to the pending crypto market structure bill ahead of the panel's Thursday markup, according to a Politico report flagged by Cointelegraph on May 13, 2026. The amendment count, surfacing roughly 36 hours before the scheduled session, is the clearest signal yet that the bill will be heavily reshaped before any committee vote.
Crypto prices barely flinched on the news. As of May 13, 2026, BTC trades at $81,029 (down 0.2% on the day), ETH at $2,294 (down 0.8%), with the Fear and Greed index sitting at a neutral 50.
Volume Points to Contested Provisions
A markup typically clears with a handful of amendments. Triple-digit submissions reflect either coordinated opposition, scattered single-member concerns, or both. The crypto market structure package has drawn fire from multiple corners over the past several weeks, with banking lobbyists, exchange operators, and consumer advocacy groups all pushing competing redlines.
The 100+ figure does not yet tell us which provisions are under attack. But the recent record of legislative friction around the bill points to several pressure points: stablecoin yield restrictions, SEC versus CFTC jurisdictional language, custody rules for tokenized assets, and anti-manipulation provisions that exchanges have been lobbying to strip.
Reuters and Politico both noted earlier this month that the banking lobby alone sent more than 8,000 letters to senators objecting to stablecoin yield-sharing provisions. On the industry side, Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini have publicly pressed to soften language related to market manipulation enforcement.
Markup Mechanics
A committee markup is the stage where members offer, debate, and vote on amendments to a bill before reporting it out to the full chamber. With over 100 filed, the markup itself could stretch across multiple days, and many submissions will likely be withdrawn, ruled out of order, or rolled into manager's amendments before reaching a vote.
What matters for the bill's trajectory is which amendments the chairman accepts into the base text and which get voice-voted down on the floor of the committee room. That filtering process is where the bill's final shape gets decided, not on the originally introduced language.
For crypto firms that have spent the year pushing for clear rules, the markup is a double-edged event. A clean report-out would unlock a path to floor consideration. A bill mangled by amendments could trigger a fresh round of redrafting and push final passage into late 2026 or beyond.
Stakes for Issuers and Exchanges
The market structure bill, in its current form, would assign jurisdiction over digital commodity spot markets to the CFTC while leaving securities-classified tokens with the SEC. It also touches on stablecoin issuance standards, custody requirements for tokenized real-world assets, and disclosure rules for token offerings.
Each of those provisions has direct downstream effects on US-based exchanges, stablecoin issuers, custodians, and the growing list of card programs that route fiat-stablecoin conversion through US rails. A version that lands closer to the banking lobby's preferences could restrict yield products that some stablecoin spending programs rely on for economics. A version closer to the industry draft could speed institutional rollouts.
For card-side businesses specifically, the more relevant amendments are the ones touching custody and stablecoin reserve rules. Issuers running custodial spend accounts on US infrastructure would feel any tightening of segregation or reserve standards within months of passage. Self-custody card programs sit further from the blast radius but still depend on a clear classification regime to operate without quarterly legal reinterpretation.
Three Signals From Thursday's Markup
The markup is scheduled for Thursday, May 14, 2026. Three signals will tell observers whether the bill survives in legible form: how many amendments are accepted into a manager's package versus debated individually, whether the committee splits along party lines or breaks into bipartisan clusters per issue, and whether the chair extends the session into Friday rather than forcing a same-day report-out.
If the panel reports the bill out cleanly with a narrow set of accepted amendments, floor consideration before the August recess becomes plausible. If markup runs long and the bill is recommitted, the timeline slips meaningfully.
Overview
Senate Banking Committee members have filed over 100 amendments to the crypto market structure bill ahead of a Thursday markup, signaling heavy negotiation across stablecoin, custody, and jurisdictional provisions. Crypto markets showed no immediate reaction, with BTC near $81,000 and ETH near $2,300. The volume of amendments raises the odds of a delayed report-out and pushes near-term legislative certainty into the markup process itself.
