White House Sends Clarity Act Ethics Language to Senators as Crypto Adviser Delays Army Training to Push Bill

The United States crypto industry's central legislative priority, the market-structure bill known as the Clarity Act, has entered its final and most contested phase in the Senate. The White House agreed on an ethics package and sent the language to certain Senate Republicans, and Patrick Witt, the White House crypto adviser coordinating the effort, deferred Army National Guard training to stay in Washington through the vote.

The obstacle is not the bill's substance on how tokens are classified between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), but a single conflict-of-interest clause. Senate Democrats want language barring federal officials, including President Trump, from personal crypto business interests. Trump holds an estimated $1.4 billion in crypto-linked assets, and his administration had not approved the ethics text as of July 20.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pledged a floor vote before Congress breaks around August 7, with the week of July 20 the likely window. The bill needs 60 votes, meaning roughly seven Democrats, and each procedural step consumes about a week of floor time. Coinbase, which backed a tougher version after Democrats added customer safeguards, says the measure has "tremendous momentum," though prediction market Polymarket priced 2026 approval odds near 31%.