Senate passes national defense bill with crypto amendment

Senate national defense bill gets a crypto amendment, but House negotiations could squash bipartisan efforts

article-image

Senator Elizabeth Warren | Source: Gage Skidmore "Elizabeth Warren" (CC license)

share

Bipartisan senators successfully included a crypto provision in a critical national defense bill passed by the Senate on Thursday evening. However, the policy will likely encounter challenges in the House.

The National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2024, introduced earlier this month by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., sets the policy agenda and budget for the Department of Defense for next year. 

Senate Democrats were able to push the legislation through Thursday with 945 amendments, one of which is a bipartisan effort targeting the use of crypto for illicit activities. The amendment was co-sponsored by Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Ka. 

The amendment requires regulators to create “a risk-focused examination and review process for financial institutions” engaged in crypto asset activities. It also requires the Treasury Department to advise Congress on crypto asset mixers and other anonymity-enhancing digital asset tools.

“Prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering and illicit finance is critical to both our national security and economy,” Gillibrand said in a statement Thursday. “This amendment requires federal regulators to enact strong examination standards that will help prevent the utilization of cryptocurrencies in illegal activities.” 

Lummis and Gillibrand have collaborated on bipartisan crypto efforts in the past, namely with their Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which was introduced for a second time this session after failing to make it to markup last session. 

Warren and Marshall similarly have co-sponsored crypto-focused efforts in the past, but their crypto-anti money laundering bill has yet to make the rounds this session. Industry members were expecting a revamped version of the bill to debut on the floor in April, but two insiders shared with Blockworks that the senators have delayed its reintroduction because they want to find more cosponsors. 

Last week, the House passed its own version of the National Defense Authorization Act, with 42 amendments. The initiative was co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash. However, due to the Republican majority in the House, 40 Republican amendments were passed, causing the bill’s bipartisan support to dwindle. 

The House and Senate must now negotiate on a version of the bill that can make it to the President’s desk before Sept. 30, when the current law determining the allocation of funds for the Department of Defense will expire.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (2).png

Research

Uniswap confronts structural headwinds as Ethereum's dominance in DEX volume erodes while Solana emerges as the leading ecosystem. Despite massive historical volume, UNI token holders receive no revenue distribution after four years of operation, while multi-chain expansion efforts consistently underperform due to subsidized local competitors. Recent initiatives including Unichain L2 and V4 protocol upgrades have failed to generate meaningful organic adoption despite substantial incentive programs, highlighting the challenge of competing in increasingly fragmented markets without sustainable value accrual mechanisms.

article-image

Why nobody can ever truly “win” Bitcoin mining

article-image

Privy said it would still operate as an “independent product” despite the acquisition

article-image

Franklin Templeton’s Roger Bayston tells Blockworks that stablecoins and market funds ‘complement’ each other

article-image

Analysts are lowering their earnings estimates for Big Tech, while BTC continues to outperform top names

article-image

The updates could set the Solana ETFs on a path to approval within the next few months

article-image

Could the mobile-first platform give Courtyard a run for its money?