US Congress Struggles to Define Where Officials' Interests End

The CLARITY Act aimed to regulate crypto markets and establish who would be responsible for overseeing them. However, during negotiations, Congress also grappled with a thorny issue: how to define when a government official's financial interests end and their family's begin.

Under the final Senate draft of the bill, senior federal officials holding at least $15,000 in equity in businesses that issue or sponsor digital assets would have been required to divest or place those holdings into a qualified blind trust. Their spouses would also have faced restrictions, but adult children would not have.

The provision drew attention due to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's ties to Cantor Fitzgerald and Tether, the company behind USDT, the largest stablecoin. Although Lutnick stepped down from Cantor and transferred ownership through trusts benefiting his adult children, he remained exposed to the same business economically.

Democrat lawmakers argued that the protections didn't go far enough, as the rule would have allowed a president or Cabinet official's adult children to maintain financial connections to crypto businesses. This concern is illustrated by Trump's finances, which showed more than $1.4 billion in income from crypto ventures in 2025.