US Federal Officials Barred Until 2029 from Issuing or Sponsoring Tokens under CLARITY’s Proposed Ethics Rules

Senate Republicans have released the proposed text for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, including language on ethics that would bar all US federal officials — including President Donald Trump — from issuing or sponsoring any digital asset.

In the 616-page text of the CLARITY Act made public on Wednesday, US lawmakers included language that the White House described as the “most comprehensive and wide-ranging ethics provision in history.“ The bill said all public officials, employees and their spouses would be barred from issuing or sponsoring digital assets and crypto platforms would similarly be blocked from listing assets issued or sponsored by federal officials.

Text of CLARITY Act released on Wednesday. Source: Cynthia Lummis

According to Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s chief advocates, the ethics provisions would also apply to Trump, who faces significant pushback from lawmakers over earning more than $1.4 billion in 2025 from his crypto ventures. The ban on public officials would only be temporary, expiring on Jan. 20, 2029 — the day Trump’s second term as president will end. 

The US Attorney General will largely be responsible for enforcing the ban rather than state authorities. As of Wednesday, Trump’s former personal attorney and acting AG Todd Blanche was awaiting a Senate confirmation vote to head the Justice Department.

“I wouldn’t support the bill if that’s the language,” said Senator Angela Alsobrooks in a Tuesday statement to Politico on having the DoJ behind enforcement of ethics. “But we’ll keep working from that floor to reach an agreement that holds us all accountable.”

The CLARITY Act, which awaits a potential vote in the Senate before returning to the House of Representatives and possibly Trump’s desk, still needs support from several Democratic lawmakers to meet a 60-vote threshold. Many Democrats have explicitly said that they will not vote for any bill without strong ethics language to address what some have called the president’s “crypto corruption.”

Will enough Democrats sign onto the bill?

Notably, CLARITY’s ethics provisions did not appear to include children of public officials in its temporary ban. All three of Trump’s sons are co-founders of his family’s World Liberty Financial crypto business, and two launched a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, American Bitcoin.

“This bill applies one ethics standard to everyone, including the President of the United States, and backs it up with real enforcement, real penalties, and a Department of Justice mandate to act,” said Lummis on behalf of the US Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on digital assets. “This is not talk.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly plans to put CLARITY up for a vote on the Senate floor sometime next week regardless of whether it has enough support from Democrats to pass. The chamber only has a few weeks to hold a vote before it breaks for state work periods.

“[E]thics is far from the only thing at stake,“ said Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith in reaction to the CLARITY text. “The Senate has added a full disclosure regime, an entire illicit finance section, and improved spot market regulation […] The Senate has a real chance to pass durable, bipartisan market structure legislation.“

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