# Trump Agrees to Include an Ethics Clause in the CLARITY Act

‍#夏日创作营
On July 21, a major development emerged from the White House: President Donald Trump personally signed off on including an ethics clause in the CLARITY Act, the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.” This long-delayed compromise is like the last missing piece of a puzzle thrown down at the end of a protracted tug-of-war—one of the core disputes has finally been settled. The move also clears the biggest obstacle currently blocking the CLARITY Act from moving forward. On Polymarket, the probability of “whether the CLARITY Act will be signed into law in 2026” has rebounded to 43%. Even so, with only a few weeks left before the Senate recess, time is tight:

1. Ethics Clause Details: Put “My Own Tokens” in the Leash

The ethics clause is not complicated, but every word carries weight: it would bar federal senior officials such as the president, vice president, and members of Congress from profiting from digital assets during their term of office. In other words, those who hold the state’s public instruments should not be writing the rules of the game while also placing bets at the card table.

Why did this clause take months to finalize? The answer lies in a set of staggering figures. In the 2025 annual financial disclosure documents, Trump’s family crypto business revenue reaches roughly $1.4 billion. Of that, World Liberty Financial received nearly $800 million, including $520 million in governance token sales revenue. The personal meme coin “Trump Coin” alone reportedly raked in $635 million—an increase of nearly nine times compared with the first half. First Lady Melania also reportedly wasn’t sitting idle, bringing in over $6 million from NFT and digital collectibles licensing. When regulators themselves are the biggest stakeholders, the criticism of “being both referee and player” inevitably followed.

Senators Chris Murphy, Warren, Jack Reed, and other Democrats previously jointly pressured the effort, explicitly demanding that “the bill must include a provision prohibiting the president and his family members from issuing cryptocurrencies during their terms of office, whether Meme tokens or stablecoins.” Now that the White House has nodded, this battle over “public power versus private interests” has at last reached a partial conclusion.

2. CLARITY Act Clears This Year: The Time Window Is Shrinking, but Hope Remains

With the ethics clause achieved, the bill has cleared the biggest political hurdle. But from “reaching consensus” to “being signed into law,” several more gates still stand in the way—each one a tough fight.

First Gate: Full Senate Vote.
The bill text is expected to be released within the next few days, after which it will be submitted for a vote of the entire Senate. Under the cloture procedure (Rule 22), it takes 60 votes to pass. At present, the seat arithmetic is extremely delicate. On July 11, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham suddenly died of illness. Although his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was sworn in to replace him on the 14th, the Republican seat count temporarily returns to 52. However, another senior Republican, Mitch McConnell, has remained absent since being hospitalized on June 14 and has not returned yet. If McConnell is still not present when the vote comes, Republicans would need to secure at least 8 additional Democratic votes beyond their own numbers in order to break the 60-vote threshold.

Second Gate: House-Senate Reconciliation and Re-Vote.
Even if the Senate passes it, the bill must go back to the House of Representatives for reconsideration and text reconciliation. The House previously passed a bipartisan majority in 2025 by 294 votes to 134, but differences between the two versions need to be reconciled—often the most time-consuming part of legislation.

Third Gate: Presidential Signature.
After the final text is delivered to the White House, Trump must formally sign it. Judging from his prior posture on Truth Social urging the Senate to “pass it as soon as possible,” this step likely won’t become a stumbling block—after all, he is the direct party affected by the ethics clause.

Time is the most merciless enemy.
The Senate will enter recess on August 7 and will not return until September 14. In other words, there is less than three weeks of window left for the bill. The statement from Senate Majority Leader John Thune is worth reading carefully: “There is a path to reaching an agreement, but time is running out.”

3. The Far-Reaching Significance of the Ethics Breakthrough: More Than Just One Bill

The passage of the ethics clause is far more than a technical legislative tweak. It signals three deeper shifts:

First, a “firewall” between power and capital is being built in the digital domain for the first time.
In recent years, Trump’s family has endorsed crypto business interests in his capacity as president. Token prices rose with policy tailwinds, and the pattern of retail buyers taking on risk at high prices while the family cashes out at high levels played out repeatedly. Establishing the ethics clause is an institutional constraint on “public power used for private ends”—even if the strength of the restriction remains disputed, “having rules” is still a victory over “no rules.”

Second, the bill’s biggest political fuse is being removed for the overall rollout.
As Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger put it, the ethics issue is “the elephant in the room”—an obstacle everyone can see but no one wants to touch. Now that the elephant has been pulled out of the room, the bill’s other core provisions—SEC and CFTC jurisdiction division, the stablecoin regulatory framework, “dual-track” regulation for DeFi, requirements for segregating customer assets and anti–money laundering obligations—can finally stop being held hostage. Ryan VanGrack, Vice Chair of Cbase, put it plainly: “The bill has already reached the line.”

Third, sending a signal globally: the United States is reshaping digital finance hegemony with rules.
If the CLARITY Act becomes law, it would be the first time the U.S. has comprehensively regulated digital assets at the federal level. It would also be the first time federal regulation brings digital commodity spot markets onto the federal track. This is not just about redistributing interests back and forth for Wall Street; it’s also about, in the new era where AI and blockchain are deeply integrated, who will write the underlying code for next-generation financial infrastructure. When algorithms begin to trade automatically and AI agents begin cooperating on-chain, an untamed era without rules must end.

4. Market Feedback

After the news broke, the market response was positive. Bitcoin’s price briefly rose to around $66,400, with a single-day gain of 2.6%. Shares of compliant platforms such as Cbase also rose by about 4%.