Senate Republicans Release ‘Final’ Clarity Act Draft as Trump Accepts Most Ethics Provisions

Senate Republicans have launched what they’re calling the “remaining” draft of the CLARITY Act, making a renewed push to advance the long-awaited cryptocurrency market construction invoice earlier than Congress enters the ultimate stretch of the 2026 legislative calendar.

Sens. Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott launched the 635-page proposal late Sunday, forward of a key procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15. Republicans stated the newest model consists of 126 substantive modifications requested by Senate Democrats following greater than a yr of bipartisan negotiations.

The revised laws additionally incorporates most of a bipartisan ethics proposal from Sens. Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego, whereas President Donald Trump has agreed to the brand new restrictions. The event might take away probably the most vital political obstacles going through the CLARITY Act.

“If cloture is invoked, the brand new textual content could be supplied because the substitute modification,” the senators stated.

Trump agrees to new crypto ethics restrictions

The ethics provisions have turn into a significant level of competition as lawmakers negotiate the invoice.

Trump and his household have confronted scrutiny over their involvement in cryptocurrency companies, together with World Liberty Financial, the USD1 stablecoin and the TRUMP memecoin. Trump’s monetary disclosure reportedly confirmed greater than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income in 2025, elevating questions on potential conflicts of curiosity as his administration works on cryptocurrency regulation.

The revised invoice would apply ethics restrictions to federal public officers and staff, together with the president, vice chairman, members of Congress and their spouses.

The proposal largely adopts the Tillis-Gallego framework, together with a job for state attorneys basic in implementing conflict-of-interest guidelines. That provision had been an vital situation for some Democrats contemplating assist for the laws.

Lummis stated Trump had voluntarily agreed to the restrictions and argued that Democrats ought to now assist the invoice.

“Democrats obtained what they needed; now they should take sure for a solution,” Lummis stated.

Nonetheless, the language doesn’t impose the identical restrictions on different members of the family, together with the youngsters of public officers, leaving some potential conflicts exterior the scope of the proposal.

Stablecoin rewards face a brand new circuit breaker

The most recent Readability Act draft additionally addresses one of many greatest disputes between the cryptocurrency business and conventional banks: stablecoin rewards.

The laws usually prevents platforms from paying curiosity on idle cost stablecoins, however rewards tied to stablecoin use stay permitted. Banking teams have argued that such incentives might encourage clients to maneuver deposits away from neighborhood banks and into stablecoin-based merchandise.

To deal with that concern, the brand new draft would give the Treasury secretary authority to impose an 18-month circuit breaker on sure stablecoin rewards if cost stablecoins set off substantial deposit outflows.

The supply is designed as an emergency safeguard somewhat than a everlasting ban on rewards.

The American Bankers Affiliation has pushed lawmakers to shut what it describes as a stablecoin curiosity loophole, arguing that neighborhood financial institution deposits are important to native lending.

The addition might assist win assist from lawmakers involved in regards to the potential impression of stablecoins on the normal banking system.

Blockchain developer protections narrowed

The invoice additionally makes modifications to protections for blockchain builders beneath the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.

The revised language would cut these protections to issues involving the Financial institution Secrecy Act and civil enforcement. Republicans eliminated broader language that would have protected builders from sure felony prices, together with prosecutions beneath 18 U.S.C. 1960.

That statute has been utilized by U.S. prosecutors in instances involving builders related to privacy-focused cryptocurrency companies, together with Twister Money and Samourai Pockets.

The modifications replicate an effort to offer larger regulatory certainty for builders with out creating what lawmakers might view as a broad exemption from federal felony regulation.

The Agriculture Committee provisions have additionally been tightened, with further guardrails focusing on affiliate buying and selling, conflicts of curiosity and vertical integration involving digital commodity exchanges, brokers and sellers.

The laws additional clarifies when state consumer-protection legal guidelines can apply to digital asset companies.

Readability Act faces a slim path to passage

Regardless of the newest compromise, the invoice nonetheless faces a troublesome path by Congress.

The Senate is scheduled to carry a cloture vote on Tuesday, Sept. 15, on the movement to proceed. The vote requires 60 senators.

Republicans management 53 Senate seats, that means at the least seven Democrats or independents should be a part of them if each Republican helps the measure.

A profitable cloture vote wouldn’t instantly ship the invoice to the Home. It might start the talk course of, after which senators would wish to navigate amendments and one other procedural vote earlier than remaining passage.

The Home would then want to contemplate the Senate model or reconcile it with its personal laws earlier than the measure might attain Trump’s desk.

Time is changing into a significant constraint. The Senate’s tentative schedule features a state work interval starting Oct. 5, whereas Election Day is ready for Nov. 3. Home leaders have additionally canceled scheduled work weeks later in September, leaving lawmakers with solely a restricted window to finish the laws.

Lummis has beforehand warned that if the Readability Act fails to go through the present Congress, lawmakers could possibly be pressured to attend till 2030 for one more alternative.

Patrick Witt – Government director of the White Home Council of Advisors for Digital Property’S Standing (Supply: X)

The most recent compromise has nonetheless improved market expectations. Prediction markets put the chance of the invoice changing into regulation this yr at roughly one-third, up from the low-20% vary earlier than the newest draft was launched.

For the cryptocurrency business, Tuesday’s vote will subsequently be greater than a procedural hurdle. It will likely be the clearest take a look at but of whether or not months of negotiations over market construction, stablecoins, developer protections and political ethics have produced a compromise able to successful bipartisan assist.

If Republicans can safe the required 60 votes, the CLARITY Act will transfer into the following stage. If they can’t, the business might face one other extended watch for complete federal guidelines governing the U.S. digital asset market.