Fox News Ad Targets DeFi Rules On Upcoming Crypto Bill

As House efforts continue, legislators are ready for committee action on the market structure bill as critics continue to raise concerns about the language.

• A new group called Investors For Transparency is running prime-time Fox News commercials pushing voters to oppose DeFi language in the crypto market structure law.
• Lawmakers, TradFi, and the crypto industry disagree on how to address DeFi, with critics saying the phrase weakens consumer safeguards and widens regulatory loopholes.
• Former federal enforcement attorney Brandon Perry warned that the law may create ambiguity rather than resolve it, postponing regulatory clarity via years of SEC analysis.

An advocacy group began running prime-time Fox News ads this week opposing DeFi provisions in a pending U.S. crypto bill.

On Friday, crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett said on X that the group, Investors For Transparency, launched the advertising campaign roughly one week before senators are expected to vote on the legislation in relevant committees.

The ads encourage viewers to contact their senators and support the passage of crypto legislation without DeFi-related language. According to Terrett, it remains unclear how DeFi language will ultimately appear in the final text. More clarity is expected on this when the Senate Banking Committee releases its portion of the bill ahead of Thursday’s markup, as noted by the committee’s GOP.

DeFi Language Faces Scrutiny Ahead Of Senate Markup

The campaign comes as Congress moves closer to committee markups on crypto market structure legislation. On Friday, Senator Tim Scott announced that the Committee will hold a markup on January 15. 

The Investors For Transparency group believes that the DeFi provisions are insufficient and inadequate within the Clarity Act. Critics claim that the market structure bill allows numerous DeFi services to sidestep regulatory scrutiny, potentially minimizing protections for customers. 

Brandon Perry, former enforcement attorney at a federal agency, shared with Stocktwits that the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, or the market structure bill, is “helpful in some ways, but does not eliminate the regulatory ambiguity so much as relocate it. By leaving concepts like 'entrepreneurial or managerial efforts' to future SEC guidance and rulemaking, the bill risks recreating the same uncertainty through interpretive guidance that the industry has seen through regulation by enforcement.” Perry said that this could push regulatory clarity by years. 

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $90,361, down by 0.6% in 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin dropped from ‘extremely Bullish’ to ‘bullish’, as chatter around the apex cryptocurrency remained ‘high’ over the past day.

Market Structure Bill 

The broader legislative effort is based on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 or the CLARITY Act. The legislation would create a federal framework to oversee digital assets by dividing regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It will also include establishing regulations for digital commodities.

The bill has not been bar-coded yet, meaning it is active, and lawmakers are making preparations for committee action, with parallel efforts in the House already progressing on the market structure. This would include a House vote in favor of an industry-baked market structure blueprint, Reuters reports.

The bill is being closely tracked by DeFi participants, as it deals with how noncustodial activity and decentralized protocols potentially could fall under federal market rules.

Read also: Bitwise Flags Bitcoin Is ‘Materially Underpriced’ in 2026, And The US Labor Market Could Be The Fix
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