On January 29, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (AG Committee), led by Chairman John Boozman (R‑AR), advanced S. 3755, the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act (DCIA), on a party-line vote. The DCIA builds on the bipartisan, House-passed CLARITY Act to create a federal registration and compliance regime for key digital asset intermediaries. The DCIA also would provide a clear legal definition of “digital commodities” and establish a spot market digital commodity intermediary regulatory regime with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In the press release, Chairman Boozman framed the vote as “a critical step toward creating clear rules for digital asset markets” that protect consumers while allowing innovation to thrive.
As with the CLARITY Act, the DCIA reflects bipartisan negotiations and extensive stakeholder input. During the markup, Senate AG Committee members debated several proposed amendments, including measures related to ethics rules for elected officials, safeguards against illicit finance, and calls for a fully staffed, bipartisan CFTC. Each amendment ultimately failed on a 12–11 party-line vote, and none were adopted. As a result, the bill text remains unchanged from the version noticed before markup. However, negotiations are expected to continue after the bill leaves Committee, as AG Committee rules allow further revisions post-markup. Together, these bills signal continued congressional efforts toward market structure legislation for digital assets.
Defining Digital Commodities and CFTC’s New Spot‑Market Role
At its core, the DCIA would define “digital commodities” under the Commodity Exchange Act and give the CFTC exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over cash and spot transactions in those assets when they occur “on or with” CFTC‑registered digital commodity intermediaries. This new authority is in addition to, not instead of, the CFTC’s existing anti‑fraud and anti‑manipulation powers in spot markets.
The bill also explicitly addresses permitted payment stablecoins. The CFTC would oversee transactions in such stablecoins when conducted through CFTC‑registered entities, but the statute would bar the CFTC from regulating the operations of permitted stablecoin issuers themselves, which are subject to separate regulations under the GENIUS Act enacted last year. That structure is meant to pull centralized trading and intermediation into a federal perimeter without turning the CFTC into a primary prudential regulator of issuers.
Much of the definitional detail, including how to draw lines between digital commodities and digital asset securities or “mixed” assets, would be fleshed out in rulemakings. The DCIA requires the CFTC, in coordination with the SEC, to complete a suite of rules within 18 months of enactment, and ties the Act’s effective date to that timetable.
Registration and Regulation of Digital Commodity Intermediaries
A central feature of the DCIA is a new registration regime for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Within 180 days of enactment, the CFTC must establish an expedited path for these entities to register. Once that process is in place, covered firms generally would have 90 days to register unless exempt, and would operate initially in a provisional status while the full rule set is finalized.
Digital commodity exchanges would be subject to “core principles” reminiscent of those applied by the CFTC to derivatives exchanges such as Designated Contract Markets and Swap Execution Facilities. These principles would address listing standards, market surveillance, financial resources, system safeguards, conflicts of interest, and regular reporting. Critically, exchanges could list only digital commodities for which public disclosures are available on matters such as source code, transaction history, and economic characteristics. Exchanges that hold customer funds would be required to use qualified digital asset custodians and segregate customer assets, and they would generally be prohibited from trading against their own customers. Customers could elect to participate in staking or other blockchain-based services offered by an exchange, but access to basic trading could not be conditioned on that participation.
Digital commodity brokers and dealers would face a similarly robust framework. They would be required to register with the CFTC, join a registered futures association, meet capital and risk‑management requirements, comply with recordkeeping and reporting obligations, and adhere to business‑conduct and customer‑protection standards. Customer funds and digital assets would need to be held in segregated accounts with qualified custodians, and, again, customers could opt into staking or similar blockchain‑based services. Individuals associated with these firms would also be subject to CFTC registration requirements, and intermediaries would be prohibited from employing associated persons whose registrations are expired, suspended, or revoked.
Protecting Developers and Core Blockchain Infrastructure
The bill is explicit that it does not seek to turn software developers or core protocol contributors into regulated financial intermediaries simply because they write or maintain code. A dedicated “software developer protections” section carves out a range of activities from direct CFTC intermediary regulation, including validating transactions on a network, publishing and updating software, building wallets and user interfaces, and designing and publishing blockchain systems.
These activities would remain subject to the CFTC’s anti‑fraud and anti‑manipulation authority, but they would not, by themselves, trigger registration as a digital commodity exchange, broker, or dealer. The carve‑out for such activities responds to longstanding concerns that broad market‑structure legislation could chill open‑source development and infrastructure work if drafted too broadly.
Funding, Retail Voice, and International Coordination
Recognizing that a new spot‑market regime will require resources, the DCIA would give the CFTC a dedicated funding stream tied to digital commodity oversight. The Commission would be authorized to charge initial and annual fees to registered digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers, and qualified custodians. It would also receive expedited hiring authority to staff up in areas such as examinations, enforcement, and policy.
The bill also looks outward in two ways. First, it directs the CFTC to consult and cooperate with foreign regulators on digital commodity matters, acknowledging that trading venues, intermediaries, and customer flows are global. Second, it creates an Office of the Digital Commodity Retail Advocate and requires the CFTC to report to Congress on the demographics of digital commodity customers, signaling a sustained focus on retail participation and consumer protection in these markets.
Relationship to the CLARITY Act and Next Steps
Substantively, the DCIA sits alongside the House‑passed CLARITY Act, which focuses more on how to divide and transition jurisdiction between the SEC and the CFTC for different types of digital assets. CLARITY is aimed at defining when a token is a “digital asset security,” when it is a “digital commodity,” and when and how it can move from one category to the other. The DCIA, by contrast, is focused on what happens on the CFTC side once an asset is treated as a digital commodity: who must register, what obligations they owe, and how spot‑market trading is supervised.
The AG Committee’s approval does not guarantee enactment. The bill now heads to the full Senate, where questions about the SEC’s role will continue to be debated. The companion market structure bill in the Senate Banking Committee continues to be in limbo, largely resulting from disagreements relating to rewards on stablecoins and the treatment of software developers. Any final framework passed by the Senate will also need to be reconciled with the House’s approach. Still, movement of a detailed, bipartisan market‑structure bill out of committee is a meaningful signal that Congress is serious about building a comprehensive statutory framework for digital asset markets.