Trump Clears Path For CLARITY Act Vote With Ethics Deal

Ethics Deal Breaks Months of Deadlock

President Donald Trump has agreed to an ethics provision that could clear the final hurdle blocking a Senate vote on the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, according to an industry source who told The Block. The agreement came Monday evening, after months of stalled talks between the White House, Senate Republicans, and Democrats.

The provision addresses how senior officials, including the president, can profit from digital assets while in office. Negotiators from both parties have spent months discussing ethics provisions that would limit how presidents, vice presidents, members of Congress, and other federal officials can profit from digital assets while in office. The issue has become a particular flashpoint given Trump's 2025 financial disclosure, which showed approximately $1.4 billion in crypto-related income, with roughly $636 million from the $TRUMP meme coin and more than $500 million from the World Liberty Financial DeFi platform his family co-founded.

Democrats are needed to reach the 60-vote threshold required to advance the bill past a Senate filibuster. The Republican caucus holds 53 seats, meaning at least seven Democratic votes are needed to invoke cloture. Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks, who both voted for the bill in committee, said in May that they would not support the bill's final passage without an ethics provision. According to the original report, Democrats had not yet seen the finalized ethics text as of Monday, and bill language is expected to be released within days.

What the CLARITY Act Would Do

The CLARITY Act, formally known as H.R. 3633, passed the House of Representatives with a 294-134 vote in July 2025. The Senate Banking Committee passed the bill on May 14, 2026, by a vote of 15 to 9. The bill would establish the most comprehensive federal framework for digital assets to date. It would apportion regulatory jurisdiction over spot digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC.

The bill defines when a cryptocurrency should be treated as a security and when a token should be treated as a commodity. Customer asset protections are also built into the framework, a provision that gained urgency after a series of exchange collapses exposed the risks of leaving customer funds without regulatory guardrails.

The Senate has until the first week of August to vote on the bill. If it passes, the legislation goes back to the House before reaching Trump's desk. TD Cowen has warned that if the ethics standoff extends past the August recess, the bill could slip to 2027. Resolving the ethics provision is seen as the last major issue capable of derailing the bill's momentum.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Clarity Act negotiations: High-level White House meeting planned, sources say
Crypto Valley Journal: Trump negotiates with senators over Clarity Act ethics clause