After Coinbase Reversal Forces Delay on Crypto Bill, Is There a Path Forward?

Less than a day after Coinbase dramatically pulled support for the Senate’s crypto market structure bill, derailing a vote that would have sent the legislation to the Senate floor, the crypto industry is reeling—and wondering whether their coveted legislation now stands any chance of passage.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Wednesday his company would no longer support the bill as written, less than 24 hours before the Senate Banking Committee was due to vote on it. After a chaotic evening, pro-crypto senators ultimately opted to delay the vote—and have yet to reschedule it.

“Today’s response from some in the industry proves they are just not ready, and while I am deeply disappointed, I am committed to taking this feedback and partnering with the industry to deliver a product that helps them thrive,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), one of the bill’s key architects,” said Wednesday night.

Crypto policy leaders have scrambled Thursday to voice their commitment to the bill and mitigate what some see as the damage done to its chances of passage by Coinbase’s abrupt about-face.

“They’re on an island here,” one crypto policy insider told Decrypt, speaking of Coinbase.

“Inaction is unacceptable,” Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto nonprofit The Digital Chamber, said in a statement Thursday. “We cannot afford to walk away from the table at a moment when clarity is within reach.”

If Coinbase is on an island, though, it is quite a powerful one. The company, one of the crypto industry’s most formidable forces in Washington, managed to singlehandedly force the Senate Banking Committee to punt a vote that both GOP leadership and the White House backed.

Coinbase’s last-minute decision to protest the bill likely centered on an ongoing battle between crypto companies and the banking lobby over stablecoin yield—one Coinbase appears to have felt it was starting to lose.

The banking industry has pushed hard to add language to the market structure bill limiting the ability of crypto companies to offer yield, essentially rewards similar to interest payments, on stablecoin holdings. Stablecoins are crypto tokens generally pegged to the value of the dollar, formally legalized in July with the passage and signing of the GENIUS Act. As of Tuesday, Decrypt reported, Coinbase signaled it was willing to accept the latest bill language on the issue.

But by Wednesday, it looked likely that bipartisan amendments to the bill supported by the banking lobby—which would have made stablecoin yield language more restrictive—were going to pass at Thursday’s markup, sources familiar with the matter told Decrypt. 

“Coinbase had a red line and made a judgement call,” one top crypto lobbyist told Decrypt.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong showed up on Capitol Hill on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to signal that the company was ready to get back to the negotiating table. But some think the damage done by the company to bill negotiations will be difficult to undo.

“Members of Congress don’t like getting played and don’t like having their time wasted,” one D.C. insider told Decrypt. “Maybe [Armstrong] gets one more chance, but he burned an enormous amount of capital and credibility.”

Already, fractures are beginning to show in the delicate coalition required to get the bill over the finish line. On Thursday, Patrick Witt, one of the White House’s top crypto advisors, accused pro-crypto Democrats—whose votes are needed to get the bill passed—of operating in “bad faith.” He called the markup’s postponement “disappointing.”

As Coinbase navigates the bill’s negotiations, its leadership has also made a point of emphasizing its influence over an enormous super PAC network—one that has already amassed over $116 million to spend on the 2026 midterm elections.

But even the backers of that initiative appear to be splintering over Coinbase’s approach to the market structure bill. Fairshake, the industry’s top super PAC, is funded principally by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

On Thursday, Andreessen’s top crypto executive, Miles Jennings, said that while the bill “isn’t perfect,” it must be passed—a direct counter to Brian Armstrong’s contention Wednesday that “no bill” is better than “a bad bill.”

And earlier today, speaking at a swanky investor summit in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse signaled his lack of prior warning about Coinbase’s moves against the bill.

“I was surprised how vehemently they came out and said ‘look we can’t support this’,” Garlinghouse said of Coinbase. “The rest of the industry really is still leaning in and supporting it and I think constructively trying to work through.”

The next step for the market structure bill would likely be a scheduled markup of the bill in the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is dealing with the portion of the legislation under the CFTC’s purview.

But the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the SEC, has generally been leading the push for the legislation—and Capitol Hill sources told Decrypt they would not be surprised if the Agriculture markup, penciled for January 27, is also delayed, as Senate Banking determines what to do next.

One crypto policy leader, who was already skeptical of the bill’s chances prior to Coinbase’s surprise move, doesn’t see how the play makes passage any more likely.

“I still don’t know what the path forward is,” they told Decrypt.