State of Crypto: The Government Shutdown Nears a Record

The ongoing U.S. government shutdown is already the second-longest in the nation’s history, and may break the record for longest next week. That isn’t promising for crypto legislation’s chances of actually becoming law in the near future.

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Reaching the record books

The narrative

The U.S. government shut down on Oct. 1, 2025 after Congress was unable to come to an agreement to continue funding it. The long shutdown in U.S. history is 35 days — if the current one lasts through Wednesday, it will break that record.

Why it matters

Crypto legislation has been almost at a standstill since before the government shut down, but the longer the shutdown lasts, the dimmer the prospects for legislation to move through are.

Breaking it down

The ongoing shutdown means Congress has already missed several of its self-imposed deadlines for passing legislation — most recently the tentative Oct. 20 deadline for a markup hearing on market structure legislation. Time is starting to run out to move other pieces of legislation.

As we get closer to the end of the year, Congress will have priorities other than crypto to deal with, said Wintermute Head of Policy and Advocacy Ron Hammond, who pointed to the annual National Defense Authorization Act — a must-pass military spending bill — as an example.

However, he said there was still optimism in Washington, D.C. that crypto legislation that stalled out near the end of the summer will see some movement. The next thing to watch for may be the Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft market structure bill, as that could indicate where the overall legislative package may go.

If the feedback to that draft is positive, lawmakers could quickly head toward a markup hearing around Thanksgiving and vote soon after.

A complicating factor is the shutdown. The longer it lasts, the less time there is for Congress to deal with these different legislative issues.

Another individual familiar with D.C. politicking told CoinDesk on Thursday that there is a rumor that Democrats may give up on their demands to secure lower healthcare premiums within the next week or so due to the Trump Administration’s refusal to distribute Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to recipients during the shutdown. Two federal judges on Friday ordered the administration to resume benefits regardless.

If this happens, this individual also said there may be a markup by Thanksgiving — but if Democrats are forced to give in on their demands around the shutdown, they may be less willing to compromise on market structure legislation.

Next week will also see another election, where voters will choose a number of statewide ballot initiatives, representatives, mayors and governors in the states of Virginia and New Jersey.

This week

Tuesday

• 15:00 UTC (10:00 a.m. ET) The Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear Sam Bankman-Fried’s team’s appeal of his conviction and 25-year sentence. His case will be the second one heard by the three-judge panel on Tuesday. This hearing should be streamed on the court’s website.

Thursday

• 16:00 UTC (11:00 a.m. ET) Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill will be sentenced after pleading guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in July.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See ya’ll next week!

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