Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
Graham Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Under new legislation being considered by the Senate, the president and other federal officials would be prohibited from issuing or sponsoring virtual currencies or other digital assets.
Republicans on Wednesday reintroduced a measure known as the Clarity Act, a major piece of legislation to govern the broader digital asset market. The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), provided CNBC with a document that includes initial restrictions on how the president can profit from cryptocurrencies.
The bill would authorize the Department of Justice to enforce the ban. The agency could fine violators up to $250,000 per day.
President Donald Trump signed the bill’s ethics provisions, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), one of the bill’s sponsors, told CNBC. Trump earned about $1.2 billion in crypto-related income during his first year back in the White House, according to recent disclosures.
Trump’s 2025 crypto earnings include about $580 million related to World Liberty Financial, a company co-founded by members of Trump’s family that issues the WLFI governance token and a USD 1 stablecoin. World Liberty launched USD1 in March 2025, after Trump began his second nonconsecutive term as president.
The current bill is unlikely to get the necessary 60 votes. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Maryland) and Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona). The two Democrats who were the only two Democrats to vote in favor of the bill on the Agriculture Committee said they oppose the bill released Wednesday because the ethics provisions are not strong enough.
Both Mr. Alzobrooks and Mr. Gallego criticized the proposal to leave enforcement of the ethics code with the Justice Department.
Albrooks on Wednesday criticized the Department of Justice, rather than the state attorney general, for leading oversight.
“Look at this Department of Justice,” she told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. “First of all, they’re completely unscrupulous and relying on them for anything would be a complete lunacy. There’s no way a lawless Justice Department could oversee this. So I think it’s going to be very important to have an attorney general as a backstop.”
The bill would also allow Trump to continue profiting from his cryptocurrency ventures and give him one year to transfer ownership into a blind trust.
“This is not a serious proposal,” Gallego said. He said he and a group of Democrats and Republicans plan to introduce their own ethics language soon.
Lawmakers don’t have time to make changes. Senate Minority Leader John Thune, a Republican, said he expects the Senate to consider the bill quickly.
“We don’t know yet when that will be, but I think there will be a vote within the next few weeks,” Thun told reporters at Parliament House on Wednesday.
Companies including coinbase and Ripple are calling for national legislation to create a regulatory structure for cryptocurrencies.
The banking industry has objected to certain aspects of the cryptocurrency industry, such as issuing rewards that are considered similar to interest earned on bank accounts. A group of banking organizations, including the American Bankers Association and the Financial Services Forum, said Wednesday after the latest virtual currency bill was announced that the measure “still jeopardizes the domestic lending that drives U.S. economic activity.”
—Irit Skulnik and Karen James Sloan contributed to this report.
