White House agrees to historic ethics deal on CLARITY Act
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- The White House agreed to what a White House official called "the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history" to advance the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill passed by the House in July 2025 during Republicans' "Crypto Week."
- Senate Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Van Hollen said any CLARITY bill would be "worthless" without ethics provisions addressing Trump's memecoin and his family's World Liberty Financial business.
- The Senate had no CLARITY Act vote on its congressional calendar as of Tuesday and had not released the bill's text, leaving unclear whether it can reach the 60-vote threshold.
- Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack said Democrats secured customer protection provisions in the Senate bill, though some lawmakers still demanded hearings on Trump's crypto investments before any vote.
- Bitcoin rose above $66,000 to a seven-week high on Tuesday, which MN Capital's Michaël van de Poppe attributed "entirely" to potential CLARITY approval.
- Trump last week urged the Senate to pass CLARITY "in honor of" the late Senator Lindsey Graham, whom the president called "a big supporter" of the bill.
Why it matters: If the ethics compromise holds, the CLARITY Act would become the first U.S. law creating a dedicated regulatory framework for digital asset market structure, and Bitcoin's immediate seven-week high above $66,000 shows traders are already pricing in that probability. The sticking point is real: four named Senate Democrats say ethics language is a prerequisite, and the bill still needs 60 votes with no text or vote scheduled.
