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CLARITY Act stalls as Democrats demand tighter ethics limits for officials
Senate Democrats are pressing for stronger conflict-of-interest rules after warning that weaker ethics provisions could let senior officials and their affiliated businesses continue to profit.
Senate negotiators working on the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill, are running into a sticking point over ethics language that would limit how much senior officials, including the president and vice president, can profit from digital asset ventures, according to CryptoSlate.
Several Senate Democrats say the ethics and conflict-of-interest provisions in a July 22 draft are still too narrow and too weakly enforced. They are seeking changes they say would prevent President Donald Trump and affiliated businesses from continuing to profit, with Senator Elizabeth Warren pointing to specific potential loopholes including an investment exception, affiliated-company structures, and enforcement handled by the Department of Justice only.
The impasse is now tied to whether negotiators can strengthen the provisions enough to win the Democratic votes the bill needs. CryptoSlate also notes Republicans previously added ethics restrictions to the July 22 draft, but Democrats want further revisions before the measure can move forward.
CryptoSlate frames the debate against a backdrop of Trump’s recent crypto pitch and subsequent actions, including promises made at Bitcoin 2024 and later White House orders reviewing crypto rules and creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. It contrasts that with the support for a different Democratic approach that emerged from events such as Crypto4Harris in August 2024, before Harris had staked out a formal policy position by the end of 2024.
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