2025 is approaching, but US crypto legislation is still stuck on the DeFi hurdle.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott’s stance is clear: “If DeFi isn’t included in the core framework, working on this market structure bill is a waste of time.” So what’s the issue? By design, decentralized finance is essentially “unregulated”—now they want to assign someone responsibility, which doesn’t make sense from a technical perspective.

At the negotiating table, it’s down to just “a few DeFi clauses” that haven’t been agreed on. The Republicans are running out of patience and suspect the Democrats are deliberately stalling. If the two parties keep bickering, the Republicans are ready to push the bill forward unilaterally.

For top DeFi protocol tokens like UNI and AAVE, this deadlock means short-term uncertainty. But in the long run, any clear regulatory framework—even a strict one—is better than the current vacuum of “wanting to regulate but unable to.” After all, compliance is a necessary step for the industry to go mainstream, even if the process is bound to be anything but smooth.