The bill has faced continued opposition from Democrats who say it lacks sufficient money laundering safeguards and strong enough ethics provisions. The central enforcement dispute is whether state attorneys general should have the power to act as a secondary enforcement mechanism for the bill's ban on government officials operating crypto businesses — a role Democrats want but Republicans and the White House oppose, favoring the Justice Department instead.

The banking sector has also objected to language in the bill permitting crypto exchanges to offer yield on stablecoin balances, warning that such rewards would siphon customer deposits from conventional lenders.

The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May on a 15-9 vote, the first time a broad digital asset regulatory framework had passed a congressional committee. The House passed the bill 294-134 in July 2025. Any Senate-passed version would need to return to the House for further approval before reaching President Donald Trump. Democrats are expected to focus on oversight investigations rather than crypto legislation if they win the House majority in November.

Cody Carbone, chief executive of crypto industry trade group the Digital Chamber, called the delay a setback while maintaining that the Senate still had an opportunity to move the bill during the week of September 14. "The fight is far from over," he said.

Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a central figure in drafting the bill, was less optimistic. "Death by 1,000 cuts is just as fatal as a bullet," she wrote on social media Saturday.