White House agrees to CLARITY Act ethics deal as BTC tops $66,000

The White House agreed to ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, clearing the biggest hurdle to a Senate floor vote on the first US federal crypto regulatory framework. Bitcoin rose 2 percent to $66,330, reaching a seven-week high on the news.

"The administration has agreed to the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history," a White House official told Cointelegraph, adding that it had "bent over backward to accommodate Democrats' concerns."

The deal, reached Monday after Trump met with Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno on July 16, addresses restrictions on senior officials profiting from digital assets. Trump's annual disclosure showed $635 million in meme coin royalties and $515 million from World Liberty Financial token sales. The House passed the bill 294-134 in July 2025, but it stalled in the Senate over the ethics clause. The Department of Justice would enforce the rules, not individual state attorneys general, Senator Kevin Cramer confirmed.

Republicans hold 53 seats and need at least seven Democrats to reach the 60-vote cloture threshold. The Senate's August recess begins Aug. 10, leaving a narrow window. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said lawmakers are at the "1-yard line," per Bloomberg. Polymarket odds of passage in 2026 rose to 42 percent from 32 percent last week.

The CLARITY Act would split crypto oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, policing digital commodities like Bitcoin, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, overseeing tokens that act as securities. The bill also imposes registration and customer-protection requirements on crypto intermediaries, including exchanges and custodians. Coinbase vice chair Ryan VanGrack said Democrats had already negotiated consumer protection provisions into the Senate version.

Democrats including Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen had said any CLARITY bill would be "worthless" without ethics provisions addressing Trump's crypto ties. An amendment from Van Hollen failed 13-11 along party lines during the Senate Banking Committee markup in May. The committee advanced the bill 15-9, with Democrats Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks crossing party lines — though both said their votes did not guarantee floor support. Alsobrooks identified financial-crime provisions as unfinished business after the committee vote. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Mark Warner are seen as key swing votes, with both seeking illicit finance safeguards before backing the bill.

The broader crypto market added $63 billion in value, lifting total capitalization to $2.32 trillion. Coinbase Global jumped as much as 12 percent on the news. Bitcoin traded with $31.5 billion in 24-hour volume as the rally accelerated. Michaël van de Poppe, founder of MN Capital, said the price move was "entirely dedicated towards the potential approval of the Clarity Act."

Even with the ethics deal, the bill faces remaining disputes over decentralized finance and illicit-finance provisions. Lawmakers must also reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions before sending legislation to Trump. The Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, must also weigh in on relevant provisions. No vote had appeared on the Senate calendar as of Tuesday, and the bill text had not been made public.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.