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Digital Asset Market Clarity Act draft adds ethics curbs on officials’ personal cryptocurrencies

Digital Asset Market Clarity Act draft adds ethics curbs on officials’ personal cryptocurrencies

Senate Democrats say the merged CLARITY Act’s White House-backed ethics language is too weak, raising doubts about whether the crypto market-structure bill can clear the chamber before the August recess.

TRUMP

Fact Check
All elements of the claim are corroborated. The official Senate Banking Committee page confirms a new CLARITY Act draft text released July 22, 2026 with ethics provisions restricting officials from issuing/selling digital assets, DOJ-only enforcement, and a sunset when the President leaves office. The Coincu report specifies Division C provisions barring covered individuals and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for consideration, disclosure rules (>$1,000 FMV), penalties, and a sunset at noon Jan. 20, 2029. CoinDesk and Lowenstein Sandler independently confirm the ethics rule is temporary/sunsets Jan. 20, 2029. This aligns precisely with the claim.
Summary

A newly merged Senate draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act combines the Banking and Agriculture committees’ market-structure texts and keeps a White House-approved ethics provision that has now become a central obstacle to passage. The bill is designed to create a broader regulatory framework for the crypto industry by dividing oversight between the SEC and CFTC, but a group of seven Democrats said the latest Republican-backed text still falls short on ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity. The ethics section would bar public officials, employees and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring a digital asset, prohibit trading platforms from listing such assets, and place enforcement with the U.S. Attorney General. Democrats have objected in particular to making the Department of Justice the sole enforcer, with Sen. Angela Alsobrooks calling that approach "wild and unserious and stone crazy right now." Sen. Elizabeth Warren separately argued the bill should be "dead on arrival," saying the structure would do little to constrain President Donald Trump’s crypto profits. The dispute is politically significant because the measure needs at least seven Democratic votes in the narrowly divided Senate, and the same bloc of crypto-friendly Democrats has been central to negotiations on both the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin bill signed into law last year. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he does not expect Congress to finish the crypto bill before the August recess, though he wants to at least get it started. Sen. Cynthia Lummis unveiled the 616-page merged text on Wednesday, while Sen. Ruben Gallego, Sen. Thom Tillis and other Republicans are working on a counteroffer to revise the ethics provision. The latest fight centers in part on whether the ethics language meaningfully addresses concerns about Trump and his family’s crypto ventures. Trump’s financial disclosures released in late June showed more than $1 billion in crypto-related income in 2025. The provision would not cover digital assets issued or sponsored before a public official takes office if they are divested or placed in a blind trust, would not apply to family members other than spouses, and would sunset on Jan. 20, 2029, after which DOJ could not prosecute violations, including conduct that occurred while the rule was in effect.

Terms & Concepts
  • stablecoin: A digital token designed to maintain a stable value by being tied to an asset such as the U.S. dollar.
  • blind trust: A legal arrangement in which assets are managed without the beneficiary knowing or directing specific investment decisions.
  • sunset: A built-in expiration date after which a legal provision no longer has effect.