Today in crypto, the US Senate passed a funding bill to end the ongoing government shutdown, now awaiting House approval. Brazil’s central bank moved to bring crypto and stablecoins under tighter supervision, while a US Senate committee released a draft framework for digital assets.
Senate approves funding bill to reopen US gov’t, awaits vote in House
The US government is moving closer to reopening after more than 40 days of being shut down, following several Democratic lawmakers in the Senate siding with Republicans to pass a funding bill.
On Monday, the US Senate held a late-night vote for a bill “continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026,” which passed 60 to 40 in the chamber. The bill is expected to fund the government through Jan. 31, 2026, provided it passes in the House of Representatives and is signed into law by President Donald Trump.
As Tuesday is a US federal holiday, the House is not expected to reconvene to vote on the bill until Wednesday at the earliest. Prediction platform Polymarket has already adjusted its expectation that the US government will return to normal operations on Friday, likely following the passage of the House bill.
Amid the government shutdown — the longest in the country’s history — many federal agencies have furloughed staff and reduced operations to align with the lack of funding.
Even if the bill were to immediately pass and be signed into law, it will likely take some time before staff can return to work. The operations plan at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, will allow employees to come back on the “next regularly scheduled workday following enactment of appropriations legislation.”
Brazil classifies stablecoin payments as foreign exchange under new rules
Brazil’s central bank completed rules that bring crypto companies under banking-style oversight, classifying stablecoin transactions and certain self-custody wallet transfers as foreign-exchange operations.
Under Resolutions 519, 520 and 521, published Monday, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) established operational standards and authorization procedures for what it calls Sociedades Prestadoras de Serviços de Ativos Virtuais (SPSAVs), a new category of licensed virtual-asset service providers operating in the country.
The framework extends existing rules on consumer protection, transparency and AML to crypto brokers, custodians and intermediaries.
The rules will take effect on Feb. 2, 2026, with mandatory reporting for capital-market and cross-border operations set to begin on May 4, 2026.
The rules also cover transfers to and from self-custodied wallets when intermediated by a service provider. This means that providers must identify the wallet’s owner and maintain their processes that verify the origin and destination of the assets, even if the transfer itself isn’t cross-border.
Senate Ag releases draft crypto market bill
The US Senate Agriculture Committee released its long-awaited discussion draft of crypto market structure laws on Monday, bringing Congress closer to passing legislation outlining how the crypto sector will be regulated.
The draft included brackets around sections of the bill that lawmakers are still negotiating, and Democrats said the Committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over certain aspects of it and are interested in working with the Senate Banking Committee to ”address issues related to noncontrolling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services.”
The bill aims to outline the limits of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s power to regulate crypto. The Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the CFTC, and the Senate Banking Committee is leading parts of the bill relating to securities laws, as it oversees the SEC.
Democrat Senator Cory Booker, who helped lead the draft with Republican Agriculture Chair John Boozman, said the discussion draft “would provide the CFTC with new authority to regulate the digital commodity spot market, create new protections for retail customers, and ensure the agency has the personnel and resources necessary to oversee this growing market.”
