White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said he remains “truly optimistic and bullish” that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, will become law, even as the bill faces unresolved policy disputes and historically low passage expectations.
Speaking at the SALT Conference in Wyoming, Witt said the White House plans to meet with Democrats to address the remaining disagreements before the Senate’s next major procedural test on September 15. “We’ll be sitting down with Democrats and really trying to hash out the areas where there are disagreements and get a solid vote on the 15th,” Witt said in remarks shared on social media.
The comments come as the Senate prepares to consider whether to advance the roughly 616-page market-structure bill after lawmakers return from the August recess. The September 15 vote is a cloture vote on the motion to proceed, meaning it would determine whether the Senate can advance to consideration of the legislation. It would not represent final passage of the CLARITY Act.
For the bill to become law, it would still need to clear the Senate, resolve differences with the House version, and receive the president’s signature.
A Contrast Against Low Passage Odds
Witt’s optimism contrasts with increasingly cautious assessments of the bill’s prospects. Galaxy Research recently cut its estimate of CLARITY becoming law in 2026 to 10%, citing the compressed legislative calendar, unresolved ethics questions and limited bipartisan support.
Prediction markets have also assigned relatively low odds to the bill becoming law this year. The downgrade followed the Senate’s failure to complete action on the legislation before the August recess, leaving lawmakers with a limited window to resolve outstanding disagreements before the midterm election cycle intensifies.
Witt’s comments therefore provide a notable counterpoint to the increasingly skeptical outlook surrounding the bill. Rather than suggesting that passage is assured, his remarks indicate that the White House still believes there is enough time to negotiate a compromise and build support for the September procedural vote.
The Key Issues
Stablecoin rewards remain one of the main sticking points in CLARITY negotiations. Lawmakers are still debating how rewards and yields should be treated, with the issue also raising broader questions about how banks and crypto companies compete in the stablecoin market.
Ethics provisions have also complicated negotiations. The bill includes restrictions on certain digital-asset activities involving federal officials and their spouses, with additional scrutiny surrounding President Donald Trump’s family crypto interests. Reaching agreement on the provisions could be important to securing bipartisan support.
Another major issue is how responsibility for digital assets would be divided between the SEC and CFTC. CLARITY would give the CFTC broader oversight of qualifying digital commodities and establish rules for exchanges and intermediaries, while also addressing software-developer protections. Disagreements over that jurisdictional split remain central to the negotiations.
What Happens After September 15?
Even if CLARITY clears the September 15 cloture vote, it would still need Senate passage, resolution of differences with the House version, and the president’s signature. The vote is therefore a test of momentum, not a guarantee that the bill will become law.
The White House remains focused on CLARITY because it would establish a statutory framework for digital assets and define the roles of the SEC and CFTC. The SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets proposal could provide narrower relief for token issuers, but legislation would offer broader and more durable market-structure rules.
What to Watch
Patrick Witt’s comments show that the White House remains confident despite declining outside estimates for CLARITY’s passage. Negotiators still need to resolve issues including stablecoin rewards, ethics provisions, software-developer protections and SEC-CFTC jurisdiction.
The September 15 cloture vote will be the clearest near-term test of whether those negotiations have produced enough bipartisan support to keep the legislation moving.
Also Read: SEC Tokenization Exemption Delayed Over CLARITY Act
