Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, December 17th, and today we are talking about market structure being bumped into 2026. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod.

All right, friends, while we are back with maybe the most predictable news of the quarter,

the market structure bill has been bumped into 2026. To the chagrin of everyone, but the surprise of no one, progress has stalled on the market structure bill as Congress calls it quits for the

year. After weeks of intense negotiations,

it seems an agreement can't be reached, and the Senate mark appearing for the bill is officially

postponed until 2026. A spokesperson for Senate Banking Committee chair, Tim Scott, confirmed the

news on Monday night, adding that Republicans have, quote, made strong progress with Democratic

counterparts on bipartisan digital asset market structure legislation.

The spokesperson commented that Scott has, quote, consistently and patiently engaged in good faith

discussions to produce a strong bipartisan product that provides clarity for the digital asset

industry and also makes America the crypto capital of the world. The committee is continuing

to negotiate and looks forward to markup in early 2026. It looks like we

also won't be getting a new bipartisan discussion draft, which Senators Lummis and Jillibrand

were attempting to release by the end of last week. Now, missing this deadline and carrying

negotiations into next year runs a huge risk of the bill falling by the wayside. January will be

embroiled in yet another round of shutdown talks as some temporary

funding measures expire at the end of the month. There's still a brief window to get things moving

before the summer break, but after that, Washington will be squarely focused on the midterms.

It's also not as though this bill was on the one-yard line and committee simply ran out of time this

year. There are still meaningful differences of opinion between the two parties that could prove irreconcilable. Last week, a written counteroffer from Democrats was

...