President Donald Trump has agreed to ethics language, potentially clearing the way for cryptocurrency legislation to become law.
An industry source told The Block on Monday evening that an agreement had been reached on the ethics provision after months of negotiations.
The source said:
“We are now hearing Trump has agreed to an ethics provision.”
Months of negotiations
The provision was discussed during a July 16 meeting between Trump, Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, and White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt.
While no agreement was reached at the time, The Block reported the measure received the president’s sign-off later on Monday.
Ethics has been the final hurdle in passing broad crypto legislation. The bill, called the Clarity Act, would comprehensively regulate the digital asset industry at the federal level for the first time, giving jurisdiction to the SEC and more broadly to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The dispute over WLF
Lawmakers and the White House spent much of the past year negotiating provisions to limit how presidents, vice presidents, members of Congress and other officials can profit from digital assets while in office.
At the center of the dispute has been Trump’s memecoins and his family’s company, World Liberty Financial. Financial disclosures released last month showed Trump received millions of dollars related to WLF.
Timeline ahead
Bill text is expected in the coming days, after which the full Senate could vote. The Senate has only until the first week of August to act.
If the Senate passes the bill, it returns to the House before heading to Trump’s desk. One source said the longer the wait for text, the better the chances it will be bipartisan.
