Variant Chief Legal Officer: US Senate Democrats' counterproposal to the Responsible Financial Innovation Act is essentially a disguised ban on cryptocurrencies, casting doubt on the prospects of the crypto market structure bill.

Jinse Finance reported that Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant, posted on X stating that a certain group has just submitted a counter-proposal to the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA), but the proposal is extremely unserious. These senators claim to support cryptocurrency, but what they are proposing is essentially equivalent to a complete ban on cryptocurrency. It is currently difficult to reach a reasonable consensus. If you have not previously paid attention to market structure-related bills, you should note that the key developments are now concentrated in the Senate. Looking back, the House of Representatives had already passed its version of the bill—the CLARITY Act—with a significant margin of 294 votes in favor and 134 against in July. The Senate, however, decided to draft its own version of the bill, which requires 60 votes to pass. The Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee have been working to advance the securities regulation section of the bill (i.e., the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, RFIA), and have released two drafts for public discussion. The draft released on September 9, 2025, is solid and has value for advancement. This version of the RFIA draft is very accurate on several key issues, the most important of which is: it will protect software developers from unreasonable regulation (and criminal prosecution), preventing a return to a regulatory era dominated by Gary Gensler in the future. Without this core provision, the bill would lose its meaning.