The Rational Bit: Weekly | January 23, 2026
- Policy: The Market Structure Bill Slams the Brakes
- The Reserve Thread Spreads: Oklahoma and Kansas
- Corporate Accumulation: Strategy Keeps Absorbing Supply
- Market Infrastructure: Nasdaq Loosens the Bottleneck
- What’s Getting Too Much Hype
- What This Means for You
- The Rational Bit
- Sources & Footnotes
Welcome back to The Rational Bit: Weekly.
This week, Washington tried to move a market structure bill forward and ran into resistance. Meanwhile, the reserve idea kept spreading across U.S. states. And Nasdaq moved to make Bitcoin ETF options less artificially cramped.
Three different arenas with the same theme: the system is being forced to update.
Policy: The Market Structure Bill Slams the Brakes
What happened: The Senate’s digital asset market structure push is still in the negotiation-and-rewrite phase. After the canceled markup of the Senate Banking Committee’s bill, reporting reinforced what that usually means in practice: delays measured in at least several weeks (and potentially longer), driven by stakeholder pushback and competing priorities \[1\].
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong remained a focal point after publicly withdrawing support for the draft in its current form, a reminder that the industry can influence policy, but it doesn’t get to skip politics \[2\].
Separately, senators have been explicit that developer protections belong in a narrower lane than a wide-ranging market structure package because mixing the two makes the bigger bill harder to pass. The Senate Agriculture Committee is preparing its own market structure work and is expected to move it forward soon \[3\].
Why it matters: The political process is still at work. Laws don’t move like code. It’s a laborious process full of revisions and compromises. When a bill is big enough to matter, especially one that defines jurisdiction boundaries and consumer rules, it catches everyone’s attention. A delay doesn’t mean it’s “dead.” It means it’s not right yet. Stakeholders now realize exactly how much is at stake \[4\].
The Reserve Thread Spreads: Oklahoma and Kansas
What happened: Two state-level stories pushed the “reserve” narrative forward in different ways:
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Oklahoma: A bill was introduced that would allow state employees and vendors to be paid in Bitcoin under a defined process \[5\].
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Kansas: Lawmakers introduced a strategic reserve proposal that would route unclaimed digital assets into a reserve, building exposure without using taxpayer funds \[6\].
Why it matters: This is how the reserve idea gets normalized in government. It’s not with one sweeping federal announcement, but through state experiments that turn Bitcoin from a debate into a line item. Some will stall or fail. Some will be symbolic. But the direction is clear: the reserve thesis is migrating from podcasts to policy.
Corporate Accumulation: Strategy Keeps Absorbing Supply
What happened: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) disclosed another major purchase: roughly $2.13 billion of Bitcoin over eight days, acquiring about 22,305 BTC from January 12–19 \[7\].
Why it matters: When we hear about new Strategy purchases every week, it’s tempting to ignore it as “Saylor being Saylor.” But this is now a structural feature of the market. When you’re thinking in adoption terms, this is the opposite of hype. It’s predictable behavior, executed at scale.
Market Infrastructure: Nasdaq Loosens the Bottleneck
What happened: Nasdaq asked regulators to lift restrictions on options trading tied to spot crypto ETFs, including major spot Bitcoin ETFs like BlackRock’s IBIT, reducing artificial constraints on how large participants can express or hedge exposure \[8\].
Why it matters: Traditional Finance continues to absorb Bitcoin into the existing financial system. Removing options limits can increase liquidity and volume in derivatives markets. Bitcoin is being treated less like a novelty and more like normal market infrastructure.
What’s Getting Too Much Hype
“The Bill is Dead” / “The Bill is Saved.” Neither is true. This week’s story was delay, leverage, and negotiation. That’s exactly what you’d expect when the stakes are jurisdiction and market design.
The rational interpretation: A delayed markup is part of the process. It’s what you should expect when the U.S. is trying to define jurisdiction and market rules in public.
What to watch for:
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Whether Senate leadership puts a new timeline on the market structure process.
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Whether more states copy the Kansas-style “reserve without purchases” approach.
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Whether Nasdaq’s filing faces meaningful objection or if it becomes the new default.
What This Means for You
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If you’re skeptical: Gridlock in D.C. isn’t a failure, but a sign the debate has moved from “ban it” to “define it.”
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If you’re a financial professional: ETF infrastructure is getting less constrained, which matters for hedging and execution.
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If you’re a long-term holder: The story is about infrastructure and repeat buyers: Strategy keeps buying, and the market structure keeps normalizing.
The Rational Bit
This week was about systems reacting.
Washington hit the brakes. States kept writing the template. Strategy kept buying. Nasdaq kept adjusting the rules.
Adoption isn’t one moment. It’s pressure applied over time until the old system updates.
See you next Friday.
₿ Steve Holden-Corbett
The Rational Bit
Disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes only and should not be taken as financial advice. Everyone’s situation is different; always do your own research before making financial decisions.
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