Galaxy Research Director: US bipartisan talks begin on crypto market structure bill; Democrats raise demands for front-end compliance and other aspects of DeFi.

[Galaxy Research Head: US Bipartisan Talks on Crypto Market Structure Bill; Democrats Raise Demands on DeFi Front-End Compliance, etc.] According to Mars Finance, on January 7th, Alex Thorn, Research Head at Galaxy, shared the latest developments on the Crypto Market Structure Bill on the X platform: "A bipartisan meeting was held today to discuss the core demands of Democrats and Republicans to advance the bill. We reviewed a key document generated from this meeting. The Democrats' main demands regarding DeFi include: front-end compliance with sanctions compliance requirements; granting the Treasury Department greater authority for 'special measures'; and establishing regulatory rules for 'non-decentralized' DeFi. Other Democratic demands include: adjusting the classification of crypto assets; introducing new investor protection clauses for crypto ATMs and FTC consumer protection; adding anti-circumvention clauses (to prevent loopholes from circumventing securities laws or other regulatory requirements); setting a maximum fundraising cap of $200 million for issuers; and requiring protocol parties to proactively report to the SEC that their agreements do not constitute securities." Issues still under further discussion include the regulation and handling of stablecoin yields; ethical considerations; and conflicts of interest. Republicans are pushing the Senate Banking Committee to consider the bill next Thursday (January 15). It remains unclear whether the two parties can reach a bipartisan agreement to make it a bipartisan bill, as many issues remain unresolved.