Key Highlights
- President Donald Trump is expected to meet with senators to discuss the unresolved ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act.
- Negotiations have slowed the release of the bill’s near-final draft despite lawmakers targeting a Senate vote before August.
- Democratic negotiators continue pushing for stricter conflict-of-interest rules covering senior government officials’ crypto holdings.
President Donald Trump is expected to meet with U.S. senators on Thursday as lawmakers attempt to resolve the last major dispute surrounding the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The meeting comes as Senate negotiators race to finalize the long-awaited crypto market structure bill before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess.
According to reports, discussions have increasingly centered on one issue: the bill’s ethics provisions governing whether senior government officials including the president, vice president, and members of Congress can maintain personal financial interests in digital assets.
The talks have delayed the circulation of what had been expected to be the near-final version of the legislation.
Ethics rules become the final roadblock
Negotiators from both parties have reportedly made progress on most regulatory questions, leaving conflict-of-interest rules as the largest unresolved issue.
Several Democratic senators have argued that stronger ethics provisions are necessary following disclosures showing Trump generated more than $1 billion from crypto-related business activities during 2025.
The current negotiations are attempting to determine whether those restrictions should directly apply to sitting presidents and other senior elected officials.
According to people familiar with the discussions, the White House meeting is expected to focus on finding a compromise that both lawmakers and the administration can support.
Industry observers believe resolving the ethics language could remove the biggest remaining obstacle to Senate passage.
Lummis pushes for vote before August
The latest developments follow comments earlier this week from Senator Cynthia Lummis, who said the Senate had spent nearly ten months negotiating the legislation and was preparing to introduce bill text within days.
Speaking on Fox Business, Lummis emphasized the importance of completing Senate action before lawmakers begin their August recess.
Lummis also indicated she still expects the legislation could reach the Senate floor during the week of July 20. However, the final schedule remains under the control of Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Tillis continues searching for banking compromise
Beyond ethics negotiations, lawmakers are still managing concerns from the banking industry over the bill’s stablecoin provisions.
Earlier this week, Senator Thom Tillis floated what he described as a possible “circuit breaker” mechanism that would allow regulators such as the FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to intervene if payment stablecoins begin causing significant deposit migration from traditional banks.
Tillis stressed that the proposal was only preliminary, calling it “thoughtware,” while encouraging banking groups to provide alternative language.
He also suggested that if banks continued opposing the legislation even after such safeguards were added, their concerns over stablecoin yields may not have been their primary objection.
Banking groups still oppose section 404
The latest negotiations also follow renewed lobbying by the banking sector.
This week, a coalition of 78 banking organizations, led by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), urged Senate leaders to revise Section 404 of the CLARITY Act.
The groups argue that the current stablecoin framework could allow payment stablecoins to offer reward mechanisms that function similarly to high-yield bank deposits, potentially accelerating deposit migration away from community banks.
The latest letter builds on earlier opposition to the Tillis-Alsobrooks stablecoin yield compromise, which several banking organizations previously described as insufficient.
Coinbase says CLARITY is critical for tokenization
As negotiations continue, crypto companies are increasingly emphasizing the legislation’s broader significance.
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad recently said the CLARITY Act would provide the regulatory certainty needed for the company’s long-term vision of becoming an “everything exchange” offering tokenized equities, stablecoins, payments, and digital assets through a single regulated platform.
Shirzad argued that while crypto markets remain cyclical, the larger transformation involves moving traditional financial assets onto blockchain infrastructure.
“The broader trend line is unambiguous.” He added that the legislation would provide permanent legal certainty as tokenization continues expanding across financial markets.
Senate faces narrow window
Even if negotiators resolve the ethics provisions, time remains limited.
Congress is expected to begin its August recess after the first week of August, leaving only a few legislative weeks for Senate debate, amendments, and final passage.
Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly said he intends to move the legislation later this month, regardless of whether every issue has been fully resolved.
With Trump now expected to participate directly in negotiations, lawmakers enter what could become the most decisive phase of the CLARITY Act’s nearly year-long legislative process.
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