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A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators has finalized the ethics compromise at the heart of the CLARITY Act's market-structure bill, according to people briefed on the effort, a breakthrough that could finally clear the path for the landmark crypto legislation to reach the Senate floor — though time is running dangerously short.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona took on the politically explosive task of rewriting the section of the bill governing crypto conflicts of interest for senior government officials, a provision drafted with President Donald Trump's sprawling crypto business empire squarely in mind. The two have now struck common ground, sources said, though they have not yet released the details publicly.
Trump's narrow concession
The ethics fight has been the single biggest obstacle to advancing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Trump recently agreed to accept a narrow version of the conflicts-of-interest concept, surprising some crypto insiders with his willingness, and the White House hailed it as an unprecedented ethics constraint that directly affects the sitting president.
But Democratic opponents argued the language was structured so that Trump would have to do little — if anything — to comply, and that he would face no enforcement worries from a Department of Justice run by his own appointees. That gap is what Tillis and Gallego were deputized to close.
Spokespeople for the senators and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the status of the negotiation.
A clock running out
The Senate is barreling toward its August recess, leaving only a handful of working days for the bill to clear the chamber's arcane procedural hurdles. To pass, the CLARITY Act needs 60 votes — a threshold that demands significant Democratic support and the buy-in of a few reluctant Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has conceded the bill almost certainly cannot finish the full multi-stage voting process before the break. But if negotiators can lock in the ethics language and start the wheels turning on "cloture" — the procedural motion that sets up floor votes — by the end of the week, the bill could build enough momentum to finish in September.
"We will probably have a vote on the Clarity Act," Thune said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News, though he added the caveat that it "may depend" on whether Democrats come along.
Galaxy Digital trims the odds
Not everyone on Wall Street is convinced the bill makes it across the finish line. Trading desk Galaxy Digital recently cut its odds of the CLARITY Act passing this year to roughly 30%, citing the narrowing legislative window and the depth of Democratic resistance to the current ethics language.
With only about four working days before the recess, lobbyists say a single enforcement clause — the mechanism that would actually compel senior officials, including the president, to shed or wall off their crypto holdings — remains among the final sticking points. Until that is resolved to both sides' satisfaction, the rest of the bill is effectively frozen.
A make-or-break week
Republican negotiator Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill's chief architects, signaled her frustration on Wednesday. "After nearly 11 months of giving almost everything asked of us, I genuinely don't know what else my Democrat colleagues need before we act," she posted on X.
The crypto industry, which has spent millions lobbying for the legislation, is watching the coming days as a make-or-break moment. If the Senate fails to move the bill before the recess, attention will shift to a brief September window already crowded with must-pass items including a federal budget to keep the government open.
For now, the Tillis-Gallego compromise is the best hope the CLARITY Act has left.
