Ethics Issues Crop Up In The CLARITY Act As Trump Family Bags $2.3B From Crypto

• The CLARITY Act faces “rocky” issues over its ethics provisions, which threaten another legislative deadlock if left unresolved.
• An independent probe found that the Trump family earned $2.3 billion from crypto projects since their patriarch took office as US president.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) is just four steps away from becoming law after the US Senate officially placed it on its calendar. Despite already moving past the “thorny issue” on stablecoin yields that has mostly delayed its markup for months, it’s again off to a “rocky” situation as debate heats up on its ethics provisions.

The Trump family taking $2.3 billion in earnings from various cryptocurrency-related ventures has only fueled the argument that strict rules must be enforced to prevent conflicts of interest in the sector involving people in elected positions or having key roles in the government.

“Rocky” Discussion on the CLARITY Act’s Ethics Provisions

Citing an unnamed source from the Democratic Party, Crypto in America’s Eleanor Terrett described the ongoing ethics negotiations for the CLARITY Act as “rocky.” Her source claimed that members of the Republican Party and the White House have made an “about-face” on the matter. In other words, the Trump administration and its allies have reneged on the bipartisan agreement that they had already reached ahead of the Senate Banking Committee markup last month.

ADVERTISEMENTTerrett stated that the agreement originally included a provision that would have allowed state attorney generals (AGs) to bring a case against the Department of Justice if it failed to enforce certain ethics provisions of the CLARITY Act. However, the Republican bloc responded, emphasizing that senators outside the earlier discussions initiated the new issues. She said they are now pushing back against state AGs suing federal officials, including members of Congress.

Trump Family’s Involvement in Crypto

According to Reuters, US President Donald Trump and his immediate family members have gained at least $2.3 billion in profit from various crypto projects. These include non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles; memecoins, such as TRUMP and MELANIA; and exposure through businesses like the World Liberty Financial and the Trump Media & Technology Group.

The report noted that the Trump family’s key recipe for its success in the crypto space lay in putting its name in project branding. The move provided them with a sense of legitimacy and hope that the president would use his position to ensure investments in them would likely succeed.

ADVERTISEMENTHowever, those investments got wiped out as the Trumps rugged their investors following Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) while leaving little to none of their own money in those projects’ remaining lifecycle. Researchers found that the TRUMP memecoin generated most of the president and his family’s fortunes in crypto.

Even key crypto personalities and several Republicans have expressed disdain over Trump’s inherent conflicts of interest as he promoted various crypto projects in his capacity as the USA’s top elected official, and even gave advocates of the industry key posts in the government.

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