Lummis adds ethics ban to Clarity Act in bid for Senate deal

Sen. Cynthia Lummis released an amended draft of the Clarity Act on Wednesday, adding ethics restrictions for federal officials as supporters seek to keep the crypto market structure bill moving before the Senate’s August recess. Lummis said the revision would ban federal officials, including the president, from issuing or sponsoring a digital asset for profit, with enforcement provisions and penalties.

The Wyoming Republican said in a post on X that she hoped to reach an agreement with Democratic senators “in the coming days” and thanked them for their contributions to the draft. She described the bill as an effort to combine consumer protection with policies intended to support innovation.

The ethics language addresses an issue that had become a central obstacle for the bill. PYMNTS reported on July 17 that Democratic senators’ concerns over ethics questions and President Donald Trump’s involvement with crypto ventures were among the hurdles facing the Clarity Act. PYMNTS also reported on July 20 that the bill risked stalling as the August recess approached and the 2026 midterm election calendar began to narrow the time available for legislation.

Lummis said in a separate X post that the agreement would apply to “all federal officials,” including the president, and would prohibit issuing or sponsoring a digital asset for profit. She also thanked Trump and urged passage of the Clarity Act.

The Clarity Act is designed as comprehensive market structure legislation for digital assets. In broad terms, market structure bills set the legal boundaries for how assets are issued, traded and supervised, including which agencies have authority and what obligations apply to intermediaries and issuers. Supporters of the Clarity Act have framed it as a federal rulebook for crypto markets, with consumer protection, anti-illicit-finance and competitiveness provisions.

The official X account for Republican staff of the Senate Banking Committee said Wednesday that Lummis had released comprehensive market structure legislation and said the Clarity Act “protects investors, combats illicit finance, and keeps innovation in America.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also endorsed the revised bill in a Wednesday post on X. Armstrong said the Clarity Act was ready for a full Senate floor vote and described it as a bipartisan compromise developed after extensive work by lawmakers on both sides.

Armstrong said the measure would provide a federal framework for crypto that includes consumer protections, tools for law enforcement and a path for the United States to lead in the crypto industry. In a video included with his post, he said he believed there was a good chance of getting the bill to the full Senate floor in the next few weeks.

The next test for the legislation is whether the revised ethics provisions can secure enough Democratic support to advance the bill before the Senate’s schedule tightens further.

This story draws on original reporting from PYMNTS.