President Donald Trump is reviewing a bipartisan ethics counteroffer for the CLARITY Act as Senate negotiators race to finalize crypto conflict-of-interest rules before the chamber's August recess. The proposal, submitted by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, would allow state authorities to enforce restrictions on federal officials issuing or sponsoring digital tokens, replacing an earlier version that gave sole enforcement power to the U.S. Attorney General.
The revision addresses a central Democratic objection: that Justice Department oversight alone would not provide independent enforcement because the department operates under the executive branch. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks previously called the DOJ-only model an "unserious offer" and said she would not support the bill in that form. The White House had announced on July 22 that it accepted what it described as the most extensive federal ethics restrictions ever proposed after negotiations with Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno, but did not disclose the final wording or enforcement mechanism at the time.
The CLARITY Act, a 616-page bill merging the Senate Banking and Agriculture committee drafts, would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC. Tokens classified as digital commodities would fall under CFTC supervision, while a grandfather clause permanently classifies tokens that anchored qualifying exchange-traded products before January 1, 2026 — including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin — as non-securities. New projects could raise up to $75 million annually without full SEC registration, subject to disclosure requirements.