Trump's Crypto Conflicts Sink Industry's Hopes for Regulatory Clarity
The cryptocurrency industry had high hopes for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which aimed to give it a favorable regulatory and legal footing. However, President Donald Trump's personal profiteering from digital assets has killed the bill.
Despite investing hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns over the past two years, the industry was unable to pass the Clarity Act. The bill would have enshrined its place in the financial system and addressed issues such as corporate transparency laws that crypto companies had faced during the Biden administration.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) highlighted Trump's corruption, saying it made it impossible for standard methods of Washington influence-peddling to work their magic. She pointed out that Trump's personal profiteering from digital assets, including a billion dollars last year, was a major obstacle to the bill.
The Clarity Act also faced opposition from the banking industry over a provision that would allow digital asset service providers to pay rewards to certain holders of 'stablecoins', or fixed-value digital assets. However, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), crypto's biggest champion on Capitol Hill, said it was Trump who sank the bill.