Clarity Act Draft Adds Trump Crypto Ban Set to Expire in 2029
A near-final Clarity Act draft finally bars the president from crypto conflicts, but the provision sunsets in 2029 and the Justice Department enforces it.
A near-final draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is circulating in the Senate, and for the first time it carries a section barring the president and senior officials from direct crypto conflicts. The catch: the ban is written to expire in 2029, and the Justice Department is left to police the complaints. The text landed Wednesday. It came days after Republicans struck a deal with President Donald Trump on the bill's hardest remaining piece.
The ethics carve-out
A White House official called it the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history. That was after Republican senators met with Trump last week and settled on an accord by Monday. Regulators would get a year to put the constraints in place. When they would actually bind Trump is unclear, as is what he would do about his crypto ties, which include an ownership stake in World Liberty Financial. His own financial disclosures showed more than $1 billion earned from crypto last year, a number Democrats have seized on as proof of conflict.
The vote math
Democrats had not seen the draft when the industry did, though its text went up at Punchbowl News. That gap matters. The Senate needs 60 votes, which means at least 10 Democrats, and many of them already disliked what they were hearing on ethics. Some, under Elizabeth Warren's banner, oppose Clarity outright. Others have been negotiating. Cynthia Lummis, the Wyoming Republican who runs the Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee, is unmoved. "It's time to land this plane," she said on Fox Business, pitching the bill as a weapon against illicit finance and a shield for consumers.
What survived
DeFi builders got a reprieve. The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act stays intact, so developers who do not control user funds avoid being classed as money transmitters and the compliance weight that comes with it. The draft also adds language on federal preemption, provisional registration, and commodity pool operators, all still being picked apart by lawyers. Majority Leader John Thune wants floor action within days, and the calendar is the real constraint. The Senate breaks for summer recess in 16 days, after which attention shifts to November's midterms. The first week of August is widely seen as the last realistic window to move Clarity out of the chamber.
Sources
- New Clarity Act emerges that's a start on the final draft, makes ethics rule temporary · CoinDesk
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