The U.S. Senate has two weeks before it leaves Washington for its August recess, narrowing the window for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act to advance.

Senators have released a new draft of the legislation, merging versions previously advanced by the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees. The updated text also addresses, for the first time, what an ethics provision may look like. The bill, however, has not reached a final agreement.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would make broad changes to how federal regulators and their jurisdictions are defined for crypto markets. Those jurisdictional lines are central to the industry because they determine which federal agencies would oversee different digital asset products and trading venues. The main unresolved issue, however, is not centered on those regulatory boundaries. Instead, negotiations remain focused on ethics language tied to President Donald Trump and crypto-related business activity.

Democrats are seeking a more binding ethics provision that they say would affect Trump and the $1.4 billion he made from crypto last year. Trump and Republicans do not want such a provision to operate in that way.

The ethics language currently in the bill, which has been agreed to by the White House but not by Senate Democrats, would essentially give Trump one year to divest or place his businesses into a blind trust. It would also direct the Department of Justice to enforce the provision. Democratic objections include concerns that the Department of Justice would not pursue Trump while he is in office. They also object to the provision sunsetting when the next president is inaugurated and barring future administrations from retroactively pursuing Trump.

Under the current language, Trump could also continue benefiting from existing tokens that use his name. The provision also includes a name-image-likeness clause.

Supporters of the provision, including Senator Cynthia Lummis, argue that it applies to a range of government officials and federal judges. White House adviser Patrick Witt, along with many crypto industry participants, has said it is the most sweeping ethics provision any U.S. president has ever agreed to.

The political stakes are also significant because 2026 is an election year. A figure of more than $1 billion gives Democrats a direct issue to raise in this year’s midterm elections, which will determine which party controls the House of Representatives and the Senate next year.

Lummis told CoinDesk last week that negotiations over the ethics language and other provisions would continue through the weekend. Democrats are not the only lawmakers raising concerns about the current text. Some Republicans have also expressed issues with the legislation, Punchbowl News reported last week.

Industry participants generally believe there is still time to move the bill through the Senate before the August recess. CoinDesk has spoken with Senate staffers from both parties, crypto industry participants and others involved in the process, and nearly all have indicated they want the bill to pass.

There are exceptions. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that the bill “should be dead on arrival,” citing concerns over investor protection, national security and other provisions, as well as Trump’s crypto ties.

The crypto industry is urging lawmakers to pass the bill. A common argument online is that the Clarity Act includes some investor protection rules and creates a framework for crypto products, while failure to pass the bill would leave no such investor protections in place. The debate has therefore become both a market-structure fight and a political ethics fight, with each side framing the cost of delay differently.

If the Senate is to pass the legislation before the summer recess begins, the first procedural step to watch is a motion to proceed on Monday or Tuesday. That motion would begin the formal process. If it is filed by Wednesday, one person following the process said, the Senate would still have enough time to vote on the bill before August 7, the last day of the summer session.

If the motion to proceed ripens — meaning it has been an hour into the second day after the motion is filed, according to the Congressional Institute, a not-for-profit organization — the Senate could hold a cloture vote. That vote would most likely be on the amendment in the nature of a substitute, meaning the new text of the bill. If that passes, a later cloture vote could be held on final passage of the legislation.

“Recess deadlines are powerful tools,” Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, told CoinDesk.

Two industry sources told CoinDesk that, in practical terms, the motion to proceed is most likely to appear Monday or Tuesday, with a possible vote late next week. If the motion to proceed receives 60 votes, that would indicate the bill remains active and that lawmakers believe they are close to resolving outstanding issues, one person said. That would not necessarily mean later cloture motions would also receive 60 votes, but it would be an important step.

The actual cloture votes are more likely to occur during the final week of the summer session, meaning the week of August 3. For that timeline to work, lawmakers will likely need an agreement on ethics by Thursday, July 30, one person said.

The Senate’s broader agenda is another constraint for the crypto industry. In addition to the Clarity Act, the chamber must consider nominations, including U.S. Attorney and former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence. Senators also have a Russia/Iran sanctions bill and other time-sensitive measures to address. With limited floor time before recess, even a bill with substantial support can be slowed if senators cannot resolve objections or agree on the sequence of votes.

No committee or agency hearings related to the issue are currently planned for this week.