Senate's CLARITY Act Hits One-Yard Line, White House Suddenly Agrees Ethics Are In Bounds

President Donald Trump has agreed to an ethics provision in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, removing what had been the bill's largest obstacle as the Senate works toward a floor vote before its August recess. According to Punchbowl News, the White House, Senator Cynthia Lummis, and Senator Bernie Moreno reached agreement on language that would restrict presidents, vice presidents, members of Congress and other federal officials from profiting from digital assets while in office, with Trump approving the proposal late Monday. The legislative text has been sent to certain Senate Republicans, though the specifics of the deal have not been publicly released.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an X post that there is "a good chance" of reaching a bipartisan deal but cautioned that "things could still change," noting staff are working with Democrats to secure the votes needed to bring the bill to the floor. Senator Thom Tillis, who has helped negotiate unresolved provisions, told Politico he is "hoping that we can come up with some agreement by the end of this week," calling it "critical if we're going to try to get this across the floor before August recess." Senator Bernie Moreno said a group of senators will brief the president at the White House on Thursday on "the entirety of the bill" and "its path to success," with Lummis also expected to attend. Lummis said in a Fox Business interview Wednesday that a new draft will be introduced in the next few days and that she expects it to be on the Senate floor next week.

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Summer Mersinger, now CEO of the Blockchain Association, said on the Thinking Crypto podcast that leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee are merging their two versions into one proposal and negotiating "last-minute issues" before a vote. "We're at the one-yard line right now," she said, adding that the vote will test whether supporters can clear the Senate's 60-vote cloture threshold. The bill would shift much of the authority for enforcing digital asset regulation and oversight from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the CFTC.

The ethics fight intensified after Trump's financial disclosure showed he earned more than $1 billion in 2025 from crypto-related ventures, including over $500 million from his family's World Liberty Financial company, with other reports placing his 2025 crypto income above $1.2 billion. Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty urged support for the bill, warning that voting against it would leave the same regulatory gaps that "let bad actors like FTX collapse and wipe out customer funds" still open, adding: "We've seen this movie. Let's not watch the sequel."

The bill's path narrowed after Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday at age 71, and Senator Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized since mid-June, leaving Republicans with a 51-47 effective majority. The CLARITY Act passed the House 294-134 on July 17, 2025, and cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026. Prediction market traders have responded to the ethics news by raising implied odds: Polymarket's contract on the CLARITY Act being signed into law in 2026 climbed from a recent low near 24-32% to roughly 42-44%, while Kalshi traders priced a 79% chance the bill is voted on by the Senate before the August recess, up from 68.8% the previous day, and a 36% chance of becoming law in 2026. Bitcoin ($BTC) climbed above $66,000 following the news, with five-day spot ETF inflows surpassing $700 million, while XRP posted an intraday high of $1.1511 on the day, a 3.5% gain that ranked third among top-50 gainers behind only Ondo and Cardano. Lummis has warned that if the bill misses the July 20 and July 27 floor windows, market structure legislation could slip to 2030 or die entirely at the end of the 119th Congress in January 2027.