White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt says President Trump agreed to further limit his own ethics exemptions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after officials walked him through the provisions on Friday. The Senate is set for a Tuesday procedural vote that needs 60 votes to advance the bill, while banking groups and state attorneys general have raised objections to the latest draft.
White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said Republicans have granted as much as 95% of requests from Democratic negotiators on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, framing any Senate opposition to the bill at this stage as political. He spoke Monday at a Solana Policy Institute summit in Washington, a day after Senate Republicans circulated a new draft of the bill.
Trump agrees to further ethics limits
Officials sat down with President Trump on Friday to walk him through the Clarity Act's government-ethics provisions, and Trump agreed to further concessions after being assured the section couldn't be weaponized against him, Witt said. The revised language could push Trump's holdings into a blind trust and would give states some power to pursue federal ethics violations, according to Witt.
Senate faces a 60-vote threshold
Senate Republicans circulated another draft of the Clarity Act late Sunday, adding concessions on the ethics section and on criminal prosecution of decentralized finance projects, though the compromise wasn't crafted alongside Democrats. The chamber is set for a Tuesday vote that would open a multi-vote process toward passage. The bill — now more than 600 pages — needs at least 60 votes to clear the chamber's procedural threshold. Democratic staff on the Senate Banking Committee said the new draft still leaves Trump's own appointees, particularly the attorney general, too much authority to halt enforcement of the ethics section.
Banks and states push back
A coalition of banking trade groups objected to the bill's stablecoin provisions, warning the current language leaves loopholes that would still let interest-like payments reach stablecoin balances. Witt called the concerns over deposit flight from stablecoin rewards programs entirely hypothetical. Separately, a number of state attorneys general have said they oppose how the bill treats their legal powers to pursue bad actors.
What comes next
If the Senate advances the bill, it faces a period of amendments and further votes before returning to the House, which is not in session and may not reconvene until after the November midterm elections. That timeline points toward a post-election "lame duck" session for final action. According to CoinDesk, Representative Tom Emmer said: "We can't afford to lose another year."
Source: CoinDesk
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