Senate negotiators working on the CLARITY Act have hit a sticking point that several Democrats consider essential: ethics language restricting how much senior officials, including the president and vice president, can profit from digital asset ventures.
The CLARITY Act is the market structure bill the crypto industry has sought for years, aiming to establish clearer regulatory boundaries for digital assets. Republicans added ethics restrictions to the July 22 draft of the bill, but Senate Democrats have argued that those provisions do not go far enough.
The dispute traces back to warnings crypto industry figures raised before the 2024 election. At the time, they cautioned that tying the industry too closely to a single political figure could turn market structure legislation into a partisan battle rather than a bipartisan policy achievement.
That warning is now being tested directly, as concerns over President Trump's personal business interests in digital assets have become a central point of contention in the bill's progress through the Senate. The outcome of these negotiations will determine whether the CLARITY Act can move forward with the bipartisan support the industry has long sought, or whether it becomes another example of crypto policy fracturing along political lines.
Read more at CryptoSlate.
