White House Weighs CLARITY Act Counteroffer as Recess Deadline Looms

The White House is weighing a bipartisan ethics counteroffer for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) as Senate negotiators rush to finalize crypto conflict-of-interest rules before the August 7 recess. The bill aims to give crypto firms a federal rulebook by dividing oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Sens. Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego sent a state attorneys general enforcement plan to the White House on July 29, which would let state authorities enforce a ban on federal officials issuing or sponsoring digital tokens. This revised enforcement mechanism addresses a gap Senate Democrats had flagged in an earlier version of the bill.

The dispute over enforcement authority traces back to a White House ethics deal reached on July 21, which put the CLARITY Act's ethics package in Senate Republicans' hands with Trump's personal approval. Bitcoin.com News reported that negotiators called the agreement the bill's last major obstacle before a floor vote.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong described the bill's progress as reaching 'the one yard line', while Gallego said lawmakers are close to finalizing language to submit within days.