Key highlights:
- Trump has agreed to ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act
- The Senate is expected to vote on this before the August recess
- This would end months of negotiations to get the crypto bill over the line
President Donald Trump has agreed to key ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act. This comes after months of negotiations with the parties involved. Lawmakers are now looking to advance the bill before Congress goes on its August recess.
Crypto bill moves closer as Trump waves green flag
Eleanor Terrett shared on X that the White House and lawmakers reached an agreement on the bill's ethics language. Details on what was agreed upon were not shared, but this is a huge development for the crypto bill’s progress.
🚨NEWS: I’m hearing from multiple industry sources that the White House has agreed on an ethics package for the Clarity Act and sent the language to certain Senate Republicans this afternoon.
It’s still unclear what the details of the agreement are (I’ve reached out for…— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) July 20, 2026
The news came after months of conversations between Trump, Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno, and White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt.
The CLARITY Act would be the first full federal legislation for the crypto industry. It would help clarify which regulatory responsibilities fall between the SEC and the CFTC.
Lawmakers have spent most of the past year talking about how this bill can stop elected officials and government leaders from benefiting from digital assets while in office. The officials had raised concerns about Trump's memecoins and family crypto business, World Liberty Financial.
Financial disclosures released last month showed that Trump earned millions of dollars from World Liberty Financial. This increased the pressure from lawmakers to have stronger ethics rules.
Senate faces tight timeline before August recess
The Senate has until the first week of August to review the CLARITY Act’s final draft. They must also complete negotiations and then hold a floor vote. Meanwhile, the crypto bill text is expected to be released in the coming days.
Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger had even predicted that a Senate vote could happen as soon as this week, with all things being equal.
If the Senate approves the text, it would return to the House of Representatives for another review before it hits Trump's desk for signing.
There is now a different kind of optimism that the legislation could finally cross the finish line. The odds of the legislation becoming law in 2026 rose to 42% on Polymarket after the update was shared.
Source: Polymarket
Months of negotiations may finally be coming to an end
The road to this point has been far from smooth. Earlier this year, bipartisan efforts were derailed as lawmakers failed to find common ground on a lot of issues.
This changed after Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis helped negotiate a compromise on yield-related provisions. But even then, ethics concerns were still a major sticking point.
Many Democratic senators said that their support for the CLARITY Act would depend on the ethical standpoint that was decided on. Senators Alsobrooks and Ruben Gallego warned that their committee votes do not mean they would support the crypto bill when it gets to the Senate floor.
Apart from ethics, there were concerns about consumer protection, anti-money laundering rules, developer protections, among others.
On the supporters' side of the debate, Senator Cynthia Lummis highlighted that the bill would give authorities tools to fight financial crimes while still following the existing AML laws. Also, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) shared this belief.
Even with the split views, the crypto bill looks like it's finally aligning to become a law in the United States.
