There was a closed-door meeting yesterday between the pro-crypto members of the Senate Democratic caucus and an array of leaders from the digital asset world, discussing legislation around how to structure law for the crypto market.

The big picture: Congress is making it difficult for President Trump to achieve the legislative win he promised the crypto industry — but his administration could still deliver big without passing laws.

The latest: The meeting yesterday with Democrats got heated, largely over a leaked market structure proposal from earlier this month, a source familiar tells Axios and other outlets.

• Punchbowl News had reported on the proposal from Democrats to Republicans. Crypto in America published it in full.
• The proposal reaches deep into decentralized finance, and the industry reacted with enormous hostility to what Democrats were looking to do. Democrats, meanwhile, reportedly fumed at executives for hurting their negotiating position.
• Crypto executives also met privately with GOP leaders yesterday.

State of play: The clock is ticking on market structure.

• Congress has a lot on its agenda as it is, and now it's going to come out of a government shutdown with a backlog.
• There are two significant pieces of crypto market structure legislation out there. There's Clarity, which passed the House with a lot of Democratic support, and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which is draft Senate legislation.

Yes, but: While legislation stalls, crypto policy is moving along. The SEC and the CFTC are steaming ahead to write rules around the issuance and trading of digital assets.

• The two agencies also say that the turf war between them is over, and an alum of the SEC's Crypto Task Force is favored to take over the CFTC.

Reality check: By early next year, the commission could have comment periods open on a draft of new rules under current law.

• Rushing at full tilt, it's not impossible to imagine those rules fully promulgated by the summer of 2026.
• In theory, by the year's end, there could be fully regulated crypto exchanges operating in the U.S. and new tokens hitting the market under some sort of official pathway.
• In the background, the Genius Act regulating payment stablecoins will go into effect by then, too.

What we're watching: All of that would give the crypto industry two years of regulated operation heading into the next presidential election.

• That means that the next Democratic nominee will be in the position of dealing with an industry that's more reality than vision.

Between the lines: Before the Biden admin, the industry primarily wanted better regulation. Now it's pushing for legislation — because everyone is always fighting the last war.

The bottom line: In the end, legislation might be a nice-to-have, but not a need-to-have.

President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, the White House confirmed today.

Why it matters: The company had been lobbying Trump for more than a year — the pardon likely provides a path for Binance to operate in the U.S.

What they're saying: "President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency. In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims," White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Catch up quick: CZ was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

• Rumors of investigations into the company swirled for years.
• CZ stepped down at the time, and new CEO Richard Teng has run Binance since.

Zoom out: CZ is arguably the most successful entrepreneur in the history of the still new cryptocurrency industry, launching the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, one of its most popular blockchains and making countless investments across the space.

• Readers may remember his name from the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In that story, he offered to save the company and then backed out once he got a look at the books.
• Lately, he's been stewarding investments from his massive fund, Yzi Labs.

Cybrid, which provides stablecoin and fiat payment infrastructure, raised $10 million in Series A funding, CEO Avinash Chidambaram tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Banks and cross-border payment providers are increasingly adopting stablecoin rails to lower costs and speed settlement.

Follow the money: BDC Capital led the round through its Growth Venture Fund and was joined by Golden Ventures, Luge Capital and Panache Ventures.

• Chidambaram says this is BDC Capital's first crypto-related investment from the growth fund.

How it works: Cybrid's API connects banks and blockchain networks so clients can route payments over either fiat or stablecoin rails.

• The platform also performs KYC, AML, and sanctions screening and generates audit trails for clients.

The big picture: Faster settlement and lower fees are driving stablecoin pilots for B2B payments and remittances.

• As transaction flows shift to new rails, banks "need to think about how [they] enable this while having customers hold their funds in [their] infrastructure, as opposed to moving it out," Chidambaram says.

Between the lines: Cybrid emphasizes software revenue rather than per-transaction fees.

• "Stablecoin transaction fees are going to go to zero. Our focus is on selling software and infrastructure that lets you enable your customers to do these transactions," Chidambaram says.
• The infrastructure model also reduces conflicts of interest and aligns with banks' compliance, audit, and risk requirements.

State of play: Cybrid's platform primarily supports USDC in regulated markets and offers USDT where permitted, Chidambaram says.

• Current chains include Ethereum, Polygon, Stellar, and Solana, but the company plans to add networks based on bank demand and policy approvals.

If you need smart, quick intel on fintech dealmaking for your job, get Axios Pro Deals.

🔮 Polymarket, the prediction market, is trying for a $15 billion valuation. (Bloomberg)

🍁 Canadian exchange Cryptomus was hit with a CA $177 million fine over suspicious activity monitoring. (CBC)

🕵️‍♂️ A class action lawsuit targets a token issuer over the MELANIA and LIBRA meme coins. (Decrypt)

💳 Ledger just released a new e-ink screen cold storage wallet with advanced features but a lower price than its prior entries, at $179. (The Verge)

📌 Bonus: Noelle Acheson reviews a16z's 2025 State of Crypto report, saying it "reads like a web3 marketing document." (Crypto is Macro Now)