If Congress fails to pass market structure legislation this year, the U.S. crypto market would not revert to the enforcement-heavy environment of 2022 and 2023, but it would remain structurally constrained at a moment when global adoption and institutional interest are accelerating, Wall Street broker Benchmark said.

“The absence of legislation would cause a structural risk premium to persist across much of the digital asset ecosystem,” wrote analyst Mark Palmer in the Monday report, adding that this would cap valuation expansion for U.S.-exposed platforms.

Palmer said failure to pass legislation would delay, not derail, crypto’s maturation, leaving the U.S. market operating below its potential as investors favor bitcoin-centric…