Senate Republicans have published the proposed text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a 616-page bill that includes ethics provisions barring all US federal officials — including President Donald Trump — from issuing or sponsoring any digital asset. The legislation represents the Senate's counterpart to a market structure bill the House of Representatives passed earlier, part of a multi-year congressional effort to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets that clarifies the division of regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The White House described the ethics language as the "most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history." Under the bill, all public officials, employees, and their spouses would be prohibited from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. Crypto platforms would likewise be blocked from listing assets issued or sponsored by federal officials.

Text of CLARITY Act released on Wednesday. Source: Cynthia Lummis

According to Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill's chief advocates, the ethics provisions would also apply to Trump, who has faced significant pushback from lawmakers over earning more than $1.4 billion in 2025 from his crypto ventures. The ban on public officials would be temporary, expiring on January 20, 2029 — the day Trump's second term as president concludes.

Enforcement of the ban would fall largely under the jurisdiction of the US Attorney General rather than state authorities. As of Wednesday, Trump's former personal attorney and acting AG Todd Blanche was awaiting a Senate confirmation vote to head the Justice Department.

"I wouldn't support the bill if that's the language," Senator Angela Alsobrooks said in a Tuesday statement to Politico regarding the DoJ's role in ethics enforcement. "But we'll keep working from that floor to reach an agreement that holds us all accountable."

The CLARITY Act, which awaits a potential vote in the Senate before returning to the House of Representatives and possibly reaching Trump's desk, still requires support from several Democratic lawmakers to meet the 60-vote threshold. Many Democrats have explicitly stated they will not vote for any bill lacking strong ethics language to address what some have called the president's "crypto corruption." The ethics debate has become a central sticking point in negotiations, as the broader market structure provisions — covering disclosure requirements, illicit finance safeguards, and spot market oversight — are widely seen by industry participants as essential to providing legal certainty for crypto businesses operating in the United States.

Scope of the Ethics Provisions

Notably, CLARITY's ethics provisions do not appear to include children of public officials in the temporary ban. All three of Trump's sons serve as co-founders of the family's World Liberty Financial crypto business, and two of them launched a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company called American Bitcoin.

"This bill applies one ethics standard to everyone, including the President of the United States, and backs it up with real enforcement, real penalties, and a Department of Justice mandate to act," said Lummis on behalf of the US Senate Banking Committee's subcommittee on digital assets. "This is not talk."

Legislative Timeline

Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly plans to bring CLARITY to the Senate floor for a vote sometime next week, regardless of whether it has sufficient Democratic support to pass. The chamber has only a few weeks remaining to hold a vote before it breaks for state work periods.

"[E]thics is far from the only thing at stake," said Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, in reaction to the CLARITY text. "The Senate has added a full disclosure regime, an entire illicit finance section, and improved spot market regulation [...] The Senate has a real chance to pass durable, bipartisan market structure legislation."