White House Strikes CLARITY Act Ethics Deal as Trump Clears Senate's Final Hurdle

The White House has agreed on an ethics package for the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act and sent the language to Senate Republicans. President Donald Trump personally signed off on the provision, clearing what negotiators call the bill’s last major obstacle before a Senate floor vote.

The ethics provision targets conflicts tied to Trump’s $1.4 billion 2025 crypto income disclosure. Senate Republicans have until the August recess to pass the bill.

The CLARITY Act had been stalled for months over an ethics dispute between the White House and Senate Democrats. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks had demanded a strong conflict-of-interest provision covering the president, vice president, and members of Congress before backing the bill. The administration had not approved that language as of July 20.

Crypto in America host Eleanor Terrett reported that the White House agreed on an ethics package and sent it to certain Senate Republicans on July 21. Wu Blockchain later corroborated the scoop, with the onchain analyst reporting that Trump himself agreed to the ethics provision.

The dispute traces back to Trump’s crypto holdings, with his 2025 financial disclosure valuing his digital-asset income at over $1.4 billion. Democrats argued that ethics language without real enforcement teeth would be a non-starter.

CLARITY aims to end the jurisdictional fight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under the current draft, the CFTC would gain primary oversight of digital commodities once a network is deemed sufficiently decentralized, while the SEC would keep authority over securities tokens. The bill would also classify customer-owned crypto as customer property in an exchange bankruptcy, closing a legal gap exposed by the collapses of Celsius and Voyager.

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the draft by a 15-9 vote in May. Negotiators spent roughly 10 months merging competing House and Senate texts before the ethics fight halted momentum.

Time is now the biggest constraint. The Senate is set to begin its summer recess in the first week of August, leaving Majority Leader John Thune only a few legislative weeks. Republicans control 53 seats, requiring at least seven Democratic senators to cross over to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Prediction-market bettors had priced the odds of CLARITY becoming law in 2026 at just 39% as the ethics impasse dragged on. The specific terms of the compromise have not been made public, and revised legislative text is expected within days.

Outside groups have pushed hard for passage. A coalition of law enforcement organizations endorsed the bill, arguing that clear federal rules would help pursue crypto-related fraud. Sen. Cynthia Lummis has kept up public pressure for a July floor vote. These endorsements, paired with Trump’s direct involvement, suggest the administration sees CLARITY as a priority deliverable before August.

The next step is the release of updated bill text incorporating the ethics agreement, followed by a floor vote.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/white-house-clarity-act-ethics-deal-trump/