The CLARITY Act is dead, for now.
Why?
The two sides voting had written more than 600 pages of compromise between them, yet still what broke it was the ethics section, the few pages about whether people in government can hold and launch crypto while they are the ones writing the rules for crypto.
Trump agreed to a version of that language on Sunday, right before the vote, which was big news at the time...
It would bar covered officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring a digital asset, make them sell any “significant financial interest” in crypto or move it into a blind trust, let state attorneys general sue to enforce it, and stop exchanges from listing any token issued by one of those officials.
For a moment it looks good, but here is the part, Democrats read it differently.
Their argument was that it blocks new launches yet doesn’t clearly reach what is already in place, and they wanted it extended to large holdings, dependent children and paid crypto promotion.
For context on why that section was the one that mattered:
- Trump’s own financial disclosure in June showed at least $1.4 billion in crypto income for 2025.
- Around $594 million from World Liberty Financial and about $635 million from the $TRUMP coin.
- Besides the fact that crypto was his single biggest source of income for the year, bigger than real estate.
What now?
The SEC and the CFTC keep going with their own rulemaking, which was already happening in the background. That route is slower, narrower, and much easier for the next administration to undo.
The crypto PACs now decide what they do with the senators who voted no, with the election on November 3.
And if the Senate changes hands in November, the next version of this bill gets written in a very different room.
Regardless of how anyone feels about this bill, the part I keep coming back to and failing to move on from is the selfish side of our nature as humans, this was a bill with more than six hundred pages and the whole thing fell apart over the section about themselves.
Why?
The two sides voting had written more than 600 pages of compromise between them, yet still what broke it was the ethics section, the few pages about whether people in government can hold and launch crypto while they are the ones writing the rules for crypto.
Trump agreed to a version of that language on Sunday, right before the vote, which was big news at the time...
It would bar covered officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring a digital asset, make them sell any “significant financial interest” in crypto or move it into a blind trust, let state attorneys general sue to enforce it, and stop exchanges from listing any token issued by one of those officials.
For a moment it looks good, but here is the part, Democrats read it differently.
Their argument was that it blocks new launches yet doesn’t clearly reach what is already in place, and they wanted it extended to large holdings, dependent children and paid crypto promotion.
For context on why that section was the one that mattered:
- Trump’s own financial disclosure in June showed at least $1.4 billion in crypto income for 2025.
- Around $594 million from World Liberty Financial and about $635 million from the $TRUMP coin.
- Besides the fact that crypto was his single biggest source of income for the year, bigger than real estate.
What now?
The SEC and the CFTC keep going with their own rulemaking, which was already happening in the background. That route is slower, narrower, and much easier for the next administration to undo.
The crypto PACs now decide what they do with the senators who voted no, with the election on November 3.
And if the Senate changes hands in November, the next version of this bill gets written in a very different room.
Regardless of how anyone feels about this bill, the part I keep coming back to and failing to move on from is the selfish side of our nature as humans, this was a bill with more than six hundred pages and the whole thing fell apart over the section about themselves.