Trump pushes CLARITY Act at White House crypto summit
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- Trump held a White House press conference Wednesday with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, urging the Senate to pass "a fair version" of the CLARITY Act to keep the US "ahead of China."
- The CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 but has been stalled in the Senate for months over concerns about tokenized equities, stablecoin rewards, and the Trump family's potential conflicts of interest with crypto.
- Armstrong predicted the bill could attract "more than 60 votes" once the Senate addresses a cloture motion on Sept. 15, with Trump adding that "a lot of Democrats support" the measure.
- Trump framed the push personally, urging lawmakers to advance CLARITY "in his honor" after the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, whom Trump called a "big supporter" of the bill.
- Senator Ruben Gallego fired back at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, saying "what the president means is fair to him" and arguing that "the president doesn't just get to decide what level of regulation he gets."
- The CFTC scheduled an Innovation Advisory Committee meeting the day after the White House event, with Chair Michael Selig signaling the agency would move forward on crypto regulations while Congress remains out of session.
- The SEC proposed new crypto rules the same week, offering companies a safe harbor from tokens being treated as "investment contracts" and certain exemptions for token issuance.
Why it matters: The Senate's Sept. 15 cloture vote will determine whether US crypto market structure rules come from legislation or from the SEC and CFTC acting unilaterally — the latter path is already in motion, with the SEC proposing safe-harbor rules this week and the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee meeting Thursday. Gallego's public objection signals Democrats may withhold the bipartisan votes Armstrong projects until ethics language on the Trump family's crypto holdings is tightened.
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