The last wall blocking the CLARITY Act may have just come down. On the evening of July 20, President Trump agreed to an ethics provision for the crypto market structure bill, according to Crypto in America’s Eleanor Terrett and Punchbowl News’ Brendan Pedersen. The language went to a group of Senate Republicans the same afternoon. Here’s the catch: Democrats hadn’t seen it, and their votes are what decide this.
What Trump Agreed To in the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act
The Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633) would hand most crypto oversight to the CFTC, leave securities-like tokens with the SEC, protect customer funds in a bankruptcy, and set safe harbors for DeFi developers. The piece of legislation that got stuck was not about this though. It was a conflict-of-interest clause that limited how the president, vice president, and members of Congress could profit from digital assets while in office. That clause points straight at Trump, whose July 1 financial disclosure logged about $1.4 billion in crypto income for 2025, most of it tied to World Liberty Financial and his memecoin.
Moreno vs. Gallego: Two Readings of the Same Ethics Text
Republicans are selling the language hard. Senator Bernie Moreno called it “the strongest of any piece of legislation ever passed by any Congress.” Democrats read it the opposite way. Senator Ruben Gallego, one of only two Democrats who advanced the bill in committee, called the GOP draft “very weak.” Senator Cory Booker put it plainly: “The only way to get this done is a bipartisan pathway.” Disruption Banking flagged the same gap when the text first dropped on July 17. A separate group of Senate Democrats has already threatened to block the bill.
The 60-Vote Problem and the August 8 Deadline
Republicans hold 53 seats. Passage needs 60, so at least seven Democrats have to cross over, and none have signed on to the new language yet. Bill text is expected within days, though one source told reporters that a slower release would point to a more bipartisan product. The Senate breaks for recess around August 8, leaving Majority Leader John Thune a tight runway to schedule a floor vote. Prediction market Polymarket has swung between the low 30s and mid 40s on the 2026 passage this past week, a fair gauge of how open the outcome remains.
So “White House agrees to ethics deal” is accurate but incomplete. Trump’s sign-off settles the Republican side of the ledger. It does nothing yet to move the Democrats who determine whether this bill lives. So, the two things to watch next are the actual text and the first Democratic senator who backs it.
Author: Ayanfe Fakunle
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
See Also:
CLARITY Act Text Drops Today: No Democrats on Board and 60 Votes to Find | Disruption Banking
CLARITY Act Stalls as Trump’s Memecoin Crashes 14% After Mar-a-Lago Gala | Disruption Banking
