Crypto Advocacy Groups Support CLARITY Passage as Ethics Rules Face Pushback

The Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber and Blockchain Association wrote to US Senate leaders on Friday calling for the chamber to prioritize “floor consideration” of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

In a Friday letter to Senator Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the three cryptocurrency advocacy groups urged consideration of the CLARITY Act, which Republican lawmakers have been pushing for a vote before the chamber breaks for state work periods in August. Although the bill has advanced through the Senate banking and agriculture committees, some lawmakers said they planned to withhold their votes until key provisions were addressed.

“[We] recognize that constructive bipartisan negotiations remain underway to secure and expand support for this critical piece of legislation,” said the letter. “We appreciate these good-faith efforts of Senators on both sides of the aisle, and we encourage those discussions to continue.”

Source: Crypto Council for Innovation

The CLARITY Act, expected to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation impacting the crypto industry, needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 52-47 majority over Democrats. Republicans released the text of the market structure bill earlier this week, including ethics provisions that barred public officials from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrencies, but many Democrats said that the measures don’t go far enough to prevent corruption.

Related: Goldman Sachs CEO backs ‘not perfect’ CLARITY Act as vote expected soon

“Whatever piece of s— they sent back to us, that was not a serious effort,” Senator Ruben Gallego said on Thursday regarding the ethics provisions, according to Politico.

Gallego added:

”[…] After all the work that we’ve done with our Republican colleagues, that they would take the months and months of work and somehow interpret that and turn around and think what they offered was even remotely close.”

White House crypto adviser on Democratic opposition to CLARITY ethics rules. Source: Patrick Witt

Industry leaders weigh in on CLARITY ahead of potential floor vote

“The status quo in the US isn’t working,” said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a Wednesday X post. “There’s no federal framework, so bad actors like FTX can harm US customers and much of the industry has gone offshore totally outside US purview. This bill fixes that with strong consumer protections, real tools for law enforcement, and a path for America to lead in this industry.”

Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer of DeFi platform 1inch, spoke about the bill on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction podcast on Friday, saying that CLARITY would help recognize a framework for non-custodial protocols rather than “regulating with enforcement.”

“Some regulators, they try to be friendly to non-custodial protocols or projects, they still try to fit us in into the custodial frameworks and make us use custodial solutions to solve problems that they used to in this legacy custodial or traditional finance, which is wrong [and] doesn’t apply to us at all,” said Gavryliak. “That’s why it’s very important for CLARITY to pass.”

If lawmakers are unable to hold a vote for CLARITY before the Senate breaks in August, it could push consideration into the weeks before the 2026 US midterms, potentially complicating discussions. As of Friday, Kalshi offered users event contracts with a 40.3% chance that the bill would pass before the Senate’s August recess.

Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach