The US government is entering its third week shut down, with a Senate vote scheduled for Monday evening to end the funding impasse. A separate meeting is also planned for Wednesday, where lawmakers and crypto executives will discuss the long-stalled crypto market structure bill.
The Senate is set to vote at 5:30 p.m. ET for the 11th time in an effort to end the shutdown. Approval and a presidential signature would reopen federal operations, while another failure would extend the stalemate.
Crypto Market Structure Bill Discussion
Despite the legislative gridlock on government funding, Congress remains active on other fronts. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats are expected to host a roundtable with crypto industry leaders from Coinbase, Kraken, Circle, Ripple, and others to discuss the proposed US market-structure bill. This information was shared in a post on X by journalist Eleanor Terrett.
The meeting, led by Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, follows several Democratic senators introducing a counter-proposal to the crypto market structure bill. Critics argue this counter-proposal would "kill DeFi" and undermine the bipartisan support that the CLARITY Act received in the House in July.
The US market-structure bill is the Senate's counterpart to the House's CLARITY Act, which aims to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets.
The US government has been shut down since October 1, making it the third-longest shutdown in US history, trailing those of 1995 and 2018–2019.
ETFs Remain in the Balance Due to Shutdown
What was anticipated to be a pivotal month for US crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been stalled by the government shutdown. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency responsible for ETF approvals, operating with limited staff, key deadlines have passed without updates.
The first deadline to pass was for Canary's proposed Litecoin ETF on October 2. On October 7, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas stated that this ETF, along with Canary's HBAR ETF, appeared to be finalized. However, the shutdown will likely delay their official launch.
As previously reported, as many as 16 crypto exchange-traded funds were slated for October, including funds tracking Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and others. An additional 21 ETF applications were filed with the SEC during the initial days of October.
Furthermore, there are several pending applications for Solana- and Ethereum-based ETFs that include staking components. Issuers such as Bitwise, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, CoinShares, Grayscale, Canary Capital, and VanEck have submitted amended S-1 filings to the SEC, updating their proposals to incorporate new staking provisions.