The White House’s top crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, has set July 4 as the target date to pass broad crypto legislation into law, calling it a “tremendous birthday present for America” as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary.
Speaking Wednesday at the Consensus conference in Miami, Witt — who serves as executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets — said he believed the Senate could advance the legislation in June, leaving enough time for the House to reconcile its own version, which passed last year.
What the bill would do
The legislation would regulate the crypto industry at the federal level for the first time, dividing jurisdiction between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The main sticking point in the Senate Banking Committee had been the treatment of stablecoin rewards, which appeared to be resolved after compromise language was released last week — though bank trade groups have argued it “falls short.”
The committee could hold a hearing to amend and vote on the bill as early as next week.
Ethics provisions remain a hurdle
A new obstacle has emerged around ethics.
Many Senate Democrats have raised concerns over President Trump and his family’s crypto connections, which Bloomberg estimated have brought in about $1.4 billion since inauguration.
Both Trump and Melania Trump launched memecoins ahead of the inauguration, and the family has led the DeFi and stablecoin project World Liberty Financial.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said at Consensus that there would be no support for the bill without an ethics provision.
Witt says compromise is close
Witt said discussions with Democrats have been progressing well, noting that any ethics language cannot target a single officeholder or family:
“I think we’re getting a lot closer to a compromise on that, and I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to close that out as well.”
When pressed on whether the president would be included, Witt said the rules would apply equally to the president and a new intern working on Capitol Hill.
