The US government is nearing the fourth week of its shutdown, with a Senate vote slated for Monday evening aimed at resolving the funding stalemate, and a separate meeting on Wednesday where lawmakers and crypto executives will deliberate on the long-delayed crypto market structure bill.
The Senate will hold its 11th vote at 5:30 p.m. ET to attempt to bring an end to the shutdown. A successful vote with presidential approval would restore federal operations, while another setback would prolong the deadlock.
In spite of the impasse, Congress is active on other issues. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats are anticipated to facilitate a roundtable with crypto industry leaders from Coinbase, Kraken, Circle, Ripple, and others to discuss the proposed US market-structure bill, as noted in an X post by journalist Eleanor Terret.
This meeting, spearheaded by Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, follows the introduction of a counter-proposal by several Democratic senators to the crypto market structure bill, which critics argue could “kill DeFi” and undermine the bipartisan support received by the CLARITY Act in the House in July.
The US market-structure bill serves as the Senate’s equivalent to the House’s CLARITY Act, aimed at establishing a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets.
Since its initiation on Oct. 1, the US government shutdown has become the third-longest in US history, only surpassed by those in 1995 and 2018–2019.
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ETFs remain in the balance
What was expected to be a crucial month for US crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been hindered by the government shutdown. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the body responsible for ETF approvals, operating on limited staff, essential deadlines have passed without updates.
The first deadline that passed was for Canary’s proposed Litecoin ETF on Oct. 2. On Oct. 7, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas reported that both the Litecoin ETF and Canary’s HBAR ETF seem to be ready, although the shutdown is likely to delay their launch.
As reported by Cointelegraph, up to 16 crypto exchange-traded funds are set for October, including those tracking Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and more. Furthermore, an additional 21 ETF applications were submitted to the SEC during the early days of October.
Several pending applications for Solana- and Ethereum-based ETFs incorporating staking components also exist.
Issuers such as Bitwise, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, CoinShares, Grayscale, Canary Capital, and VanEck have all filed amended S-1 forms with the SEC, updating their proposals to include new staking provisions.
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