Digital asset oversight bill advances through Senate Agriculture Committee

Top news and prices for the major cryptocurrencies.

Digital asset oversight bill advances through Senate Agriculture Committee. A major digital asset market structure bill narrowly passed the Senate Agriculture Committee on a strict party-line vote of 12-11 Thursday, according to a Politico report on 29 January. Democrats pointed directly to former President Donald Trump and his family's crypto ventures as the primary barrier to bipartisan agreement. The committee, often seen as more collaborative than others, had previously fostered a cooperative process, including a bipartisan discussion draft last November. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) lamented that Republicans walked away from that process after the holidays, urging a swift return to bipartisan negotiations to finalize the legislation within weeks.

US regulators launch joint "Project Crypto" to streamline digital asset rules. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission formally united to launch "Project Crypto," a collaborative initiative to modernize crypto regulation. Announced by SEC Chair Paul Atkins at a joint harmonisation event, the project seeks to end regulatory fragmentation. Atkins stated that current markets and technologies blend asset classes, making disjointed oversight a source of investor confusion. This joint effort marks a significant shift from last year's perceived "turf war" between the agencies over jurisdiction, a conflict declared over last September by then-acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham.

SEC provides clarity on tokenized securities under federal law. The US Securities and Exchange Commission issued new guidance on tokenized securities on Wednesday. The information, released by three major divisions, asserts that federal securities laws apply to this asset class. Simply put, the SEC maintains that putting a security on a blockchain does not remove it from the agency’s regulatory umbrella. All standard legal obligations for securities remain in force. In its release, the SEC provided a formal definition: a tokenized security is a recognized financial instrument represented by a crypto asset, with ownership tracked on a crypto network.

UK banks block 40% of payments to crypto exchanges. UK banks are preventing or delaying roughly 40% of customer payments intended for cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a new survey conducted by the UK Cryptoasset Business Council. The research involved ten major exchanges active in the UK market, such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. One participating platform disclosed that nearly £1 billion in transactions were rejected over the past year solely due to UK bank refusals, based on visible card and transfer activity. An overwhelming 80% of exchanges noted a significant rise in customer payment problems during the last twelve months. Furthermore, 70% characterized the UK banking sector as increasingly "hostile," rating the nation’s banking access difficulty a 7.9 out of 10 versus other global jurisdictions.

Japan's regulator proposes strict criteria for bonds backing stablecoin reserves. Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) is seeking public comment on new draft rules that define the strict eligibility criteria for bonds used to back stablecoin reserves. The consultation, launched last Monday, focuses on implementing the 2025 amendments to the Payment Services Act and establishes how stablecoin issuers may invest "specified trust beneficiary interests" under Japan’s digital currency framework. It restricts assets to certain foreign-issued bonds that meet two stringent conditions. On the one hand, the bonds must carry a high credit rating, equivalent to a "1–2" or better risk category from a recognized agency. On the other hand, total outstanding bonds from the foreign issuer must be at least 100 trillion yen (approximately $648 billion). This move is part of a broader package to formalize investment rules for stablecoin reserves and update supervisory guidance for crypto intermediaries and financial institutions.

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As of January 30, 2026, 13:00 CET

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