Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, and Jeff Merkley have collectively tied their support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act to the inclusion of a cryptocurrency ethics provision that would make it illegal for sitting presidents, members of Congress, and their spouses to issue, sponsor, own, or profit from digital assets.
This demand was shaped by President Trump’s disclosures that showed that the cryptocurrency sector increased its wealth by approximately $1.4 billion, with its largest source of income in 2025 coming from the issuance of Trump’s meme coin totaling $636 million.
This is not just a procedural dispute over the language of the bill. It is a structural showdown over whether the federal government can regulate the industry from which the sitting president extracted his largest source of income the previous year, in the absence of enforceable restrictions on continued involvement.
The law of clarity is stuck, and the reason tells you everything about how Washington works.
According to Elinor Terret, “the ethics agreement is the key to unlocking the rest of the negotiations.” Industry participants say the same thing. “If we can get morality, the rest… pic.twitter.com/kwcoORhLv1
– TFTC (@TFTC21) July 9, 2026
Clarity Act News: The Ethics Provision Dilemma and the Sixty-Vote Problem
The Senate has a 60-vote threshold for passage, meaning Republicans are seeking enough votes to clear the clot while Democrats raise their influence over ethics language. This calculation gives the Gillibrand-Murphy bloc leverage, and they are now spreading it. A new draft of the bill is expected within days of its publication date on July 13, but sources familiar with the negotiations told CoinDesk that it will not contain final language on the ethics section or two other disputed points.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated he will push for a vote this month regardless, as the Senate has only a few weeks left before summer recess and the legislative calendar leans toward a midterm. This time pressure Sharp: Industry participants who expect regulatory certainty are watching the calendar as closely as a negotiating room.
In a briefing for Senate Democrats organized by Murphy last week, ethics and anti-corruption advocates argued that the cryptocurrency ethics provision should extend to family members of officials and include an outright ban on ownership and enhanced disclosure requirements.
Previous talks between the two parties had put forward a delayed timeline for implementation, one that would not immediately disrupt Trump’s existing properties, and suggested restricting the restrictions to officials rather than their families. Those concessions have since been reversed, and negotiations have reached an impasse, according to people briefed on the talks and cited by CoinDesk.
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Gillibrand’s position and what has changed in the disclosures
Gillibrand, citing Trump’s $636 million MemCoin figure, said she and her fellow Senate Democrats are pushing to make it illegal for presidents to issue or sponsor any digital assets.
Murphy, Van Hollen and Merkley announced a press conference on Capitol Hill this week to announce their opposition to the text of the current Clarity Act. The absence of the ethics clause from the upcoming draft will precede the public release of the bill.
The battle over cryptocurrency regulation has a commission record to match. In January 2026, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted on an amendment introduced by Senator Michael Bennet to prohibit federal officials and their families from issuing or endorsing digital assets. According to Reuters.
The Senate Banking Committee introduced the Clarity Act in May 2026, With details reported by Politicoafter previous Democratic Ethics Amendments were rejected or excluded from the system during committee markup.
Trump’s position and future scenario of cryptocurrency legislation
Trump has separately stated that he will not sign the legislation until Congress advances a voter ID bill, yet publicly called for the passage of the Clarity Act on Monday in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was not involved in the negotiations, suggesting that he views cryptocurrency legislation as a potential exception to that position.
White House cryptocurrency adviser Patrick Witt described this week as a crucial week for the Social Media Clarity Act, noting that the timing coincides with the one-year anniversary of the industry’s first major stablecoin policy bill.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, who leads the Senate Banking Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee, added her approval of the calls for passage. Wider procrastination in crypto regulation It has already delayed major expansions into the US market by stablecoin and DeFi companies awaiting a final legal framework.
Whether the ethics language can be resolved before Thune forces a vote, or whether Democrats will face a binary choice between blocking the bill entirely or accepting a weaker digital asset ban on the conduct of officeholders — is the practical question for next week.
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Neil is a professional cryptocurrency content writer with years of experience. He has written for numerous cryptocurrency websites to report breaking news, and has been hired by all kinds of cryptocurrency projects, to create content that will increase their exposure and attract more potential investors.
