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The U.S. Senate voted to advance a $1 trillion infrastructure bill without amending a provision that broadens cryptocurrency tax reporting requirements.

The provision seeks to enforce stronger information reporting rules for tax purposes on the crypto industry by ensuring that any brokers report transaction data to the Internal Revenue Service. However, it also broadens the definition of “broker” to the point where critics of the provision believe miners, node validators and even developers who create cryptocurrencies might qualify. Critics also argued the inability to comply with new tax regulations could make it difficult, if not impossible, for these kinds of businesses to operate in the U.S.

The Senate voted to advance the bill without any amendments late Sunday. The legislative body will debate the new base bill for 32 hours before voting to send it to the House. An amendment may be adopted through unanimous consent, but if a single Senator objects, the amendment would not be added.

Related: 2 Senators Propose Exemptions to Crypto Tax Reporting Required by US Infrastructure Bill

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said his team has “been working hard to get a deal” on Monday.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who inserted the provision in the infrastructure bill, said he does not believe the language could be interpreted that broadly, but said work could be done in floor remarks on Sunday.

“We should work to clarify this … we want to be sure miners and stakers and others, now or in the future, who play a key role by validating transactions or sellers of hardware or software for digital wallets, or node operators, or others who are not brokers, are clearly exempted,” he said.

The Senate was originally set to vote on competing amendments that both looked to address this concern in different ways.

Related: Senate’s Infrastructure Bill: What to Expect on Saturday

One amendment, introduced by Sens. Wyden, Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) last Wednesday, sought to specify that these types of businesses are exempt from the reporting requirement, meaning only trading desks or businesses which provide similar types of services would be required to comply with the broker reporting rules. 

Another version, introduced by Sens. Portman, Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) sought to only exempt validators from proof-of-work or proof-of-stake networks (after revisions). The White House previously announced its support for this amendment.

$28 billion

The way the provision is currently worded, non-custodial businesses are part of the scoring, or how the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) evaluated the amount of revenue it could bring in. It’s possible that explicitly excluding miners, for example, could change the scoring, meaning the provision would no longer be expected to generate $28 billion. This concern was levied against the Wyden/Toomey/Lummis amendment.

Though the JCT published its overall score for the infrastructure bill, the way the JCT arrived at the $28 billion figure is currently unknown. A representative told CoinDesk that the group does not typically publish this type of methodology.

Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group, launched a call-in campaign to drum up support for the Wyden/Toomey/Lummis amendment late Wednesday. A spokesperson said the general public had placed around 15,000 calls before Saturday.

Crypto businesses, lobbyist organizations and venture capital firms also pushed for the amendment in public statements and letters directed to different lawmakers.

Following the Senate vote, the infrastructure bill will move to the House of Representatives, which will not take it up before the fall.

There is bipartisan opposition to the crypto provision in the House, but it’s unclear whether the House will choose to strip out the tax provision or narrow its scope.

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Broadridge Financial Solutions has brought Swiss bank UBS onto its blockchain-based repurchase agreement (repo) platform. 

• With UBS, Broadridge now has 20 out of the 24 primary dealers on its fixed income platform, which it says processes $6 trillion in average daily volume. UBS is also the first bank partner that Broadridge has publicly announced. 
• Repos are a form of secured short-term financing in which the borrower sells securities to an investor and agrees to buy them back at a specified date and price. Broadridge aims to lower the cost of repo activity by transferring the ownership of these securities via smart contracts.
• “We look forward to the enhanced liquidity and reduction of risk that Broadridge’s distributed ledger repo platform provides,” Paul Chiappetta, director and chief operating officer of repo at UBS, said in a press release. “This partnership reinforces our overall digital strategy, leveraging new technologies aimed at reducing risk and improving efficiencies in the financial markets.”

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French regulators have approved asset manager Melanion Capital to begin offering a bitcoin-tied exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the European Union.

Fresh on the heels of announced plans to go public, Circle said Monday it intends to become “a full-reserve national commercial bank.”

If approved, the proposed digital currency bank would operate under the supervision of the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

To be clear, this would be an industry first, with a scope far beyond the OCC banking charter already conditionally issued to Anchorage and several other crypto-native financial services firms.

Related: Poloniex Agrees to $10M Settlement With SEC for Operating Unregistered Exchange

“We are embarking on this journey alongside the efforts of the top U.S. financial regulators, who through the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets are seeking to better manage the risks and opportunities posed by large-scale private-sector dollar digital currencies,” Circle said in a blog post.

A Circle spokesperson was not able to immediately answer if any corresponding paperwork has been filed with the federal authorities listed in the announcement. CoinDesk has contacted the OCC for further information.

There are currently $27.5 billion USDC in circulation. The dollar-backed stablecoin administered by Circle is the market’s second-largest stablecoin behind Tether’s USDT.

Circle announced last month it had partnered with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to go public later this year. The deal valued Circle at $4.5 billion.

Related: No More Lengthy Wallet Addresses – Send USDC to ‘username.coin’

The firm hinted at its banking aspirations in an S-4 form filed late Friday:

“As part of our strategy to reduce our dependence on third parties, we may in the future consider pursuing a U.S. national bank charter or evaluate the acquisition of a national bank. This would allow us to access the Federal Reserve System directly, reducing the costs and time for settling transactions.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Former Circle subsidiary Poloniex has agreed to pay $10.4 million settlement charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for operating an unregistered digital asset exchange.

The SEC found that Poloniex’s trading platform facilitated the buying and selling of digital assets, some of which were investment contracts and therefore classified as securities, according to an announcement Monday.

Poloniex has agreed to pay a disgorgement of approximately $8.5 million, prejudgement interest of $400,000 and a civil penalty of $1.5 million, coming to $10.4 million in total.

Related: USDC Builder Circle Says It Wants to Become a National Crypto Bank

SEC commissioner Hester Peirce noted in a public statement, however, that the settlement continues the agency’s “enforcement-centric approach to crypto” but doesn’t set forth a reasonable plan for how to regulate the industry. Peirce has previously been critical of the SEC’s crypto-related actions for not specifying which digital assets should be considered securities.

Circle Financial, which owned Poloniex from February 2018 to November 2019, had previously set aside $10.4 million for a settlement offer to the SEC.

Poloniex had not registered as a national securities exchange, in violation of Section 5 of the Exchange Act, the SEC said.

The agency determined that Poloniex qualified as an exchange by providing “the non-discretionary means for trade orders to interact and execute through the combined use of the Poloniex website, an order book, and the Poloniex trading engine.”

Related: SEC Charges So-Called DeFi Company for Allegedly Fraudulent $30M Offering

Circle revealed in July that it had lost over $156 million on its $400 million purchase of Poloniex, which it spun off just 18 months later to a consortium of unidentified Asian investors.

Circle announced in July it was planning to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition corporation Concord Acquisition Group in a deal valuing Circle at $4.5 billion.

UPDATE (August 9, 15:39 UTC): Updates with information about Hester Peirce’s public statement.

UPDATE (August 9, 13:43 UTC): Adds information in the third, fifth and seventh paragraphs.

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Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other top decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, began supporting inter-blockchain message transfers with a Monday mainnet launch.

In simple terms, the interoperability protocol will help crypto assets like tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and even price data, flow between blockchain networks that don’t usually talk to each other. Wormhole supports Terra, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain at launch.

Wormhole opens a faster (and, developers claim, simpler) route for non-native assets to enter Solana’s bustling DeFi ecosystem. Projects like Serum, the decentralized exchange backed by FTX, could unlock added cross-chain liquidity through Wormhole, one source said.

Related: NFTs Over DeFi: OpenSea Just Overtook Uniswap on Ethereum Usage

Data can cross this “trustless bridge” in both directions, said Hendrik Hofstadt, the director of special projects at Jump Trading Group, a key backer of Solana-based DeFi data distribution network Pyth. He said Pyth’s price oracles can now deliver market data to other blockchains.

“At the same time, any project can make use of the message-passing to grow beyond a single chain,” he said.

Allowing different blockchains to communicate directly opens the door for all sorts of information flows. Even governance mechanisms like voting could slip across Solana’s Wormhole.

Wormhole’s 19 validators check if an asset is locked up on Chain A so that a copy of it can move freely on Chain B.

Related: Digital-Asset Funds Reach $50B Despite Outflows

“We believe in an interchain future, and by creating an easy, scalable way to transport liquidity and messages across blockchains Wormhole presents a succinct and clear vision for that future,” Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon said in a statement.

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Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other top decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, began supporting inter-blockchain message transfers with a Monday mainnet launch.

In simple terms, the interoperability protocol will help crypto assets like tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and even price data, flow between blockchain networks that don’t usually talk to each other. Wormhole supports Terra, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain at launch.

Wormhole opens a faster (and, developers claim, simpler) route for non-native assets to enter Solana’s bustling DeFi ecosystem. Projects like Serum, the decentralized exchange backed by FTX, could unlock added cross-chain liquidity through Wormhole, one source said.

Related: Why Enterprises Should Build on Public Blockchains

Data can cross this “trustless bridge” in both directions, said Hendrik Hofstadt, the director of special projects at Jump Trading Group, a key backer of Solana-based DeFi data distribution network Pyth. He said Pyth’s price oracles can now deliver market data to other blockchains.

“At the same time, any project can make use of the message-passing to grow beyond a single chain,” he said.

Allowing different blockchains to communicate directly opens the door for all sorts of information flows. Even governance mechanisms like voting could slip across Solana’s Wormhole.

Wormhole’s 19 validators check if an asset is locked up on Chain A so that a copy of it can move freely on Chain B.

Related: Stoner Cats Chaos and the Mainstreaming of NFTs

“We believe in an interchain future, and by creating an easy, scalable way to transport liquidity and messages across blockchains Wormhole presents a succinct and clear vision for that future,” Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon said in a statement.

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Standard Chartered is set to offer crypto brokerage services to institutional investors through its Zodia Custody service.

• Zodia Custody plans to offer its brokerage service to institutional investors in Ireland, according to a report Sunday by the Irish Independent.
• The exchange and brokerage service was established as a joint venture between Standard Chartered and wealth-management firm Northern Trust in December.
• The firms said at the time that Zodia would provide crypto custody services for bitcoin and ethereum initially with litecoin, bitcoin cash and XRP added later.
• In the U.K., Zodia is one of eight firms to have won registration from the Financial Conduct Authorities authorizing it to offer crypto custody and brokerage services under anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations.

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Cryptocurrency is a relatively new type of investment, and it's an intriguing option for many people.

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $45,000 as upside momentum improved over the past two weeks. The next level of resistance is seen at $50,000, which could limit further upside given short-term overbought signals. Bitcoin is up about 2% over the past 24 hours – around $45,600 at press time and holding support above $40,000.

• The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is overbought for the second time since July 31, which preceded a near-10% price decline.
• However, the weekly RSI is rising from neutral levels with a positive momentum signal for the first time since October 2020, which reignited the long-term uptrend.
• Buyers could remain active on pullbacks this week as bitcoin cleared important technical levels such as the 100-day moving average.   

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Ether erased early losses along with bitcoin on Monday, but remains below the 2 1/2-month high of $3,188 reached over the weekend.

The native token of Ethereum’s blockchain was trading 4% higher on the day near $3,135 at press time, having touches lows near $2,900 early today, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, was changing hands near $45,700, a 4.3% gain on the day.

Both cryptocurrencies gained ground in the days leading up to Ethereum’s supposedly bullish London hard fork on Thursday. Ether led the charge, rising from $1,700 to $2,700 in preceding two weeks and then extended gains. That’s an increase of more than 85% in less than three weeks. As such, the cryptocurrency looked ripe for a pullback and has faced selling pressure in the past 24 hours.

Related: Bitcoin Holds Support; Next Resistance at $50K

“It’s a temporary pullback, typical to a move seen after a notable bull run,” Alex Melikhov, CEO and founder of Equilibrium and EOSDT stablecoin told CoinDesk early today, when ether was trading in the red below $3,000.

Analysts remain optimistic about ether’s long-term prospects. “Ether could reach a new all-time high by the year-end and rally to $10,000 or more in the next 12 months,” Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Kenetic Capital, said, adding that fundamentals have never looked more bullish. Equilibrium’s Melikhov is also a long-term bull.

The Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 implemented as part of the London upgrade introduced a mechanism that burns a portion of fees paid to miners. So as demand for Ethereum increases, ether’s supply will decrease, potentially putting upward pressure on its price.

The options market has seen ultra-bullish flows in the wake of the change, with one institution-focused, over-the-counter platform seeing a bull call spread at the $40,000 and $50,000 strike calls expiring in March 2022.

Related: Crypto Long & Short: How Do You Measure Relative Value in Crypto?

Chu, however, said there could be some bloodletting in the near term due to regulatory concerns. “Ether may fall to $2,000 or below,” Chu said. “The regulatory crackdown on Binance has triggered fears that other exchanges may be in the line.”

Both Chu and Melikhov mentioned the U.S. infrastructure bill that targets crypto-tax reporting as a source of uncertainty for cryptocurrencies in general.

While the infrastructure bill was set to be voted on over the weekend, no outcome has been decided for the so-called Portman amendment that will potentially subject more crypto investors to higher taxes and punish proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols in favor of proof-of-work (PoW).

“The amendment, while not yet passed, could have significant implications for PoS networks and set tax reporting compliance barriers that could arguably be insurmountable for many firms which operate in the decentralized finance space,” Simon Peters, a market analyst at eToro, said in an email. “Obligations to provide tax reporting would be essentially impossible on decentralized exchanges where customers are unidentifiable.”

“It also appears to favor crypto assets such as bitcoin, which are reliant on PoW and would be exempt from such reporting under the amendment,” Peters wrote. Ethereum’s blockchain, which dominates the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, is switching to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake mechanism.

Also read: What Crypto Analysts Are Saying About the Ethereum Hard Fork

Chu and Melikhov also mentioned the U.S. Federal Reserve potentially easing its quantitative-easing program as a major factor that could put downward pressure on crypto prices. The U.S. nonfarm payrolls, or monthly jobs, data beat estimates on Friday, reviving fears of an early Fed taper, or gradual scaling back of stimulus. While gold has taken a beating in the wake of the upbeat U.S. numbers, cryptocurrencies have remained relatively resilient.

The yellow metal flash crashed to a four-month low of $1,682 an ounce in Asia and was last trading near $1,740, down 1% on the day.

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Crypto exchange Binance said it will perform reverse splits on certain trading tokens linked to litecoin and uniswap.

• UNIDOWN and LTCDOWN – which generate leveraged gains when the underlying crypto assets decrease in price – will undergo a 100,000:1 reverse token split, Binance announced Monday.
• This process consolidates existing tokens into a smaller number with higher value.
• Users with 1 million of the tokens before the split will have 10 after, users with 1 billion tokens before the split will have 10,000 after and so on.
• Binance will suspend trading in the tokens at 3:00 a.m. UTC Aug. 17, taking a snapshot of the balance in users’ accounts, then update them 24 hours later before resuming trading.
• The company advised users to redeem their existing tokens into USDT before the start of the split to protect against fluctuations in price during the process.

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Argo Blockchain said first-half revenue surged 180% to £31.1 million ($43 million) as it produced more bitcoin and the cryptocurrency’s price increased.

• The London Stock Exchange-listed mining company reported growth of more than 300% in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to £16 million ($22 million).
• The company also said it canceled its $8 million order, announced February, for mining machines from ePIC Blockchain Technologies due to “limitations of technology.” With $5 million already deposited with ePIC, Argo has the option of purchasing ePIC mining machines, ePIC shares or receiving a full refund.
• As of June 30, Argo held 1,268 bitcoin and bitcoin equivalent compared with 127 a year previously.
• Argo CEO Peter Wall attributed the performance to a change in market conditions.
• The price of bitcoin jumped to about $36,000 at end-June from around $9,200 a year earlier.
• At the time of writing, Argo Blockchain shares have slumped almost 7% today.
• The London-based firm recently said it expects to list in the U.S. this quarter subject to regulatory approval and has submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

UPDATE (AUG. 9, 9:34 UTC): Adds cancelled order for mining machines.

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Bitcoin, the world’s oldest crypto, reached its highest point in almost three months on Saturday before paring back some of the weekend’s gains.

Prices have since cooled and are down around 1.5% on a 24-hour basis after reaching a top of $45,300 – their highest point since May 18. As of press time, bitcoin is changing hands for around $43,430.

Datamish data show bitcoin’s push to higher price highs (HH) and higher price lows (HL) was precipitated by a short squeeze which saw 126 BTC short positions liquidated on Friday.

Related: Crypto Long & Short: How Do You Measure Relative Value in Crypto?

“Perpetual funding rates have turned positive, meaning that the derivatives market is clearly positioned to the long side,” Toby Chapple, head of trading at digital asset firm Zerocap told CoinDesk via Telegram. “This positioning is also supported by an expanding futures basis curve, showing that market sentiment is gradually building.”

Significant outflows from exchanges have also been accelerating, indicating a lack of short-term selling intent, according to the digital asset firm. Despite market concerns around the proposed crypto tax reporting provision in the U.S. infrastructure bill, institutional activity is once again on the rise.

“This is reflected in the Grayscale premium reaching toward positive territory, albeit slowly,” said Chapple.

Indeed, on-chain data also suggests further signs of bullish activity. Wallet addresses with greater than 0.1 BTC are at their highest point in two months and have continued to rise since July 28, up 3.19 million from June 14’s 3.14 million, Glassnode data show.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Above $42K as Bull Market Continues

Whales, or large market participants holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC, continue to build long-term positioning which “bodes well for the structure of the market,” according to Zerocap.

Bitcoin’s HH and HL bullish charting pattern tells of the risk-taking mood currently brewing in the market which has driven prices toward the 200-day moving average – a significant marker of bullish activity when prices are above and conversely bearish when below.

“The 200-day moving average at approximately $45,000 has provided some resistance –  a clean break here could lead to the next accelerated push higher,” Chapple said.

Other notable cryptos in the top 20 by market capitalization are also shedding some of the weekend gains with chainlink, polygon, and dogecoin having sunk the lowest.

Meanwhile, the often touted cousin of bitcoin, gold’s spot price briefly plummeted to a low of $1,681 from around $1,760 on Sunday evening. Prices have continued to build and are sitting around $1,761 per troy ounce.

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Indonesia-based cryptocurrency exchange Pintu has completed an extended Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Participation also came by way of Alameda Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Pantera Capital and others.

The $35 million in funding will go toward hiring efforts, improving Pintu’s market position via strategic partnerships, undertaking educational marketing campaigns and delivering new products and features.

Related: A16z, BlockTower, Alameda Back $12.5M Round for TrustToken

The Series A extends from a $6 million raise in May in which Pantera Capital, Intudo Ventures and Coinbase Ventures also led. It comes as Indonesia has been eyeing a plan to tax profits on crypto trading in response to increasing popularity.

Though that does not appear to be slowing progression in the world’s fourth-largest country by population with over 273.5 million people. As of June 2021, Pintu said there were over 6.6 million crypto investors in Indonesia, roughly triple that of the country’s 2.2 million public equity investors.

Pintu began in April 2020 with a focus on simplifying the trading experience for beginners. The exchange is registered as a licensed crypto broker under the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency.

“With the support of our investors, we look forward to facilitating greater financial inclusion for Indonesians from all walks of life,” said Jeth Soetoyo, co-founder and CEO of Pintu.

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Hot diggity DOGE! Someone relished a single pack of dogecoin-themed hotdogs enough to buy them on eBay for $15,001.00.

• Oscar Mayer, a unit of American food giant Kraft Heinz, initially began the auction on Wednesday at an opening bid of $0.99.
• The winner will receive the world’s only package of ‘Hot Doge Wieners’ and the cash equivalent of 20,000 dogecoins–worth roughly $4,000.
• In what will likely be a surprise to no one, this by far tops the highest price ever paid for a pack of hot dogs. The Guinness Book of World Records puts the previous record at $169.
• There were a total of 76 bids, meaning that 75 other offers didn’t cut the mustard.
• All proceeds from the auction will go to Feeding America, a hunger relief organization that operates 200 food banks across the country.
• Oscar Mayer is not the first company to capitalize on dogecoin’s popularity. Earlier this year, smoked meat purveyor Slim Jim started a dogecoin-themed marketing campaign that sent dogecoin prices to a new all-time-high.

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U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Saturday updated their amendment modifying a crypto tax reporting provision in the Senate’s landmark infrastructure bill.

The original amendment, introduced late Thursday, would exclude cryptocurrency miners who are involved in validating transactions on distributed ledgers and companies that are selling private key hardware or software wallets. 

An initial updated version would broaden the exemption beyond just proof-of-work validators, but a second revision appears to only exempt proof-of-work and proof-of-stake validators.

Related: Senate’s Infrastructure Bill: What to Expect on Saturday

The Senate is expected to vote on both this amendment, as well as a directly competing amendment written by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). This amendment would exempt a broader swath of non-broker entities from the provision.

The current version of the crypto reporting provision in the bill would broaden the definition of a “broker” to any entity within the cryptocurrency industry that facilitates the transfer of digital currencies for another person. Opponents of the provision have said that it would force miners, hardware and software developers to track transactions of individuals who are not their direct customers.

Jerry Brito, executive director of crypto advocacy think tank Coin Center, noted on Twitter that the amendment didn’t include protocol developers.

Early Saturday, the Senate invoked cloture by a tally of 67-27. This is the first procedural step toward passing the bill. By invoking cloture, the Senate is limiting debate on the measure to 30 hours, thus allowing for a final vote by the chamber later Saturday or on Sunday.

Related: Tesla’s Musk Urges Lawmakers Weighing Infrastructure Bill’s Tax Provision Not to Pick Crypto ‘Winners or Losers’

CORRECTION (August 8, 19:05 UTC): An earlier version of this story said U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had introduced the amendment. The amendment was introduced by Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sinema. Adds updates throughout.

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U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Saturday updated their amendment modifying a crypto tax reporting provision in the Senate’s landmark infrastructure bill.

The original amendment, introduced late Thursday, would exclude cryptocurrency miners who are involved in validating transactions on distributed ledgers and companies that are selling private key hardware or software wallets. 

An initial updated version would broaden the exemption beyond just proof-of-work validators, but a second revision appears to only exempt proof-of-work and proof-of-stake validators.

Related: Senate’s Infrastructure Bill: What to Expect on Saturday

The Senate is expected to vote on both this amendment, as well as a directly competing amendment written by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). This amendment would exempt a broader swath of non-broker entities from the provision.

The current version of the crypto reporting provision in the bill would broaden the definition of a “broker” to any entity within the cryptocurrency industry that facilitates the transfer of digital currencies for another person. Opponents of the provision have said that it would force miners, hardware and software developers to track transactions of individuals who are not their direct customers.

Jerry Brito, executive director of crypto advocacy think tank Coin Center, noted on Twitter that the amendment didn’t include protocol developers.

Early Saturday, the Senate invoked cloture by a tally of 67-27. This is the first procedural step toward passing the bill. By invoking cloture, the Senate is limiting debate on the measure to 30 hours, thus allowing for a final vote by the chamber later Saturday or on Sunday.

Related: Tesla’s Musk Urges Lawmakers Weighing Infrastructure Bill’s Tax Provision Not to Pick Crypto ‘Winners or Losers’

CORRECTION (August 8, 19:05 UTC): An earlier version of this story said U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had introduced the amendment. The amendment was introduced by Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sinema. Adds updates throughout.

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U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Saturday updated their amendment modifying a crypto tax reporting provision in the Senate’s landmark infrastructure bill.

The original amendment, introduced late Thursday, would exclude cryptocurrency miners who are involved in validating transactions on distributed ledgers and companies that are selling private key hardware or software wallets. 

An initial updated version would broaden the exemption beyond just proof-of-work validators, but a second revision appears to only exempt proof-of-work and proof-of-stake validators.

Related: Senate’s Infrastructure Bill: What to Expect on Saturday

The Senate is expected to vote on both this amendment, as well as a directly competing amendment written by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). This amendment would exempt a broader swath of non-broker entities from the provision.

The current version of the crypto reporting provision in the bill would broaden the definition of a “broker” to any entity within the cryptocurrency industry that facilitates the transfer of digital currencies for another person. Opponents of the provision have said that it would force miners, hardware and software developers to track transactions of individuals who are not their direct customers.

Jerry Brito, executive director of crypto advocacy think tank Coin Center, noted on Twitter that the amendment didn’t include protocol developers.

Early Saturday, the Senate invoked cloture by a tally of 67-27. This is the first procedural step toward passing the bill. By invoking cloture, the Senate is limiting debate on the measure to 30 hours, thus allowing for a final vote by the chamber later Saturday or on Sunday.

Related: Tesla’s Musk Urges Lawmakers Weighing Infrastructure Bill’s Tax Provision Not to Pick Crypto ‘Winners or Losers’

CORRECTION (August 8, 19:05 UTC): An earlier version of this story said U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had introduced the amendment. The amendment was introduced by Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sinema. Adds updates throughout.

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The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will see some $550 billion in new spending for rail networks, roads and bridges, water management and a plethora of other issues. Before that, however, it must work through more than a dozen amendments, including two that seek to narrow a cryptocurrency tax reporting provision that would raise about $28 billion over 10 years.

In its present form, the provision would broaden the definition of a “broker” to any entity within the cryptocurrency industry that facilitates the transfer of digital currencies for another person. This could include miners, hardware and software developers, and other parties that help facilitate a transaction, but don’t participate in the transaction, the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, Coinbase, Ribbit Capital and Square said in a joint statement earlier this week.

“Second, it makes possible a massive increase in financial surveillance, potentially requiring companies to report information about individuals even if they are not customers,” the groups added.

Related: Two Senators Propose Exemptions to Crypto Tax Reporting Required By US Infrastructure Bill

The provision was one of a few that held up the introduction of the overall bill last week, and may have contributed to a delay in votes on Thursday, an individual close to the negotiations told CoinDesk.

To narrow the scope of the provision, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced an amendment that would exempt miners and other types of validators, as well as other entities that don’t provide custody and trading services. The Senate is expected to vote on this amendment at some point on Saturday, though negotiations may push the vote to as late as Monday.

However, Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one of the key negotiators of the overall infrastructure package and the lawmaker who inserted the original provision, introduced a competing amendment with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the other lead negotiator on the overall bill.

This amendment would specifically exempt proof-of-work validators (i.e. miners) and entities involved in selling hardware or software that allows individuals to control their own private keys. The Senate is also expected to vote on this amendment on Saturday.

Bipartisan conflict

Related: Tesla’s Musk Urges Lawmakers Weighing Infrastructure Bill’s Tax Provision Not to Pick Crypto ‘Winners or Losers’

Both amendments have bipartisan support and are sitting in front of a Senate that has 50 Democrats and Republicans apiece.

CoinDesk reached out to every Senator who is not a named sponsor to ask if they would vote for either amendment. The majority did not respond by press time.

Spokespeople for Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) told CoinDesk the lawmakers would support the Wyden/Lummis/Toomey amendment.

On the other hand, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told CoinDesk through a spokesperson that “crypto assets and trading platforms need to play by the same rules as everyone else.” He did not address non-trading businesses or explicitly say if he would vote for either amendment.

President Biden has also thrown his support behind the Warner/Portman/Sinema amendment.

“We believe that the alternative amendment put forward by Senators Warner, Portman, and Sinema strikes the right balance and makes an important step forward in promoting tax compliance,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

The bill will go to the House after the Senate passes it, where there is also bipartisan opposition to the crypto provision. Reps. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have all expressed support for either the Wyden/Toomey/Lummis amendment specifically, or at least narrowing the language.

The House won’t take up the infrastructure bill until this fall, after it returns from a recess.

UPDATE (Aug. 7, 2021, 20:00 UTC): Adds a statement from Sen. Mike Lee’s spokesperson.

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