Senate Clarity Act Vote Looms Amid Crypto Regulation Debate
Senate Republicans are pushing for a floor vote on the Clarity Act, a 600-page cryptocurrency package that includes ethics provisions aimed at President Donald Trump and other federal officials. The bill would bar federal officials from creating their own digital currency for profit and promoting or endorsing crypto.
The package also allows officials to own crypto, while requiring disclosure of crypto sales and setting a divestiture or blind trust requirement one year after enactment. This means that officials like Trump would need to choose between putting their assets in a blind trust or divesting them entirely.
Cynthia Lummis, who chairs the Senate Digital Assets Subcommittee, said the goal is not to draft a bill around one person, but rather to create legislation that serves the entire government. However, Elizabeth Warren has expressed concerns that the proposal does not go far enough in preventing Trump from profiting from crypto.
Warren's criticism puts the dispute on a narrow question: whether the Clarity Act merely limits how federal officials trade and disclose digital assets, or whether it actually blocks the president from benefiting from them. According to Lummis, Trump has agreed to choose between a blind trust and divesting his participation in digital assets and companies that derive revenue from digital assets.