Senior White House officials are expected to sit down with U.S. senators on Thursday to try to work out the most difficult remaining piece of the bill to regulate U.S. crypto markets, according to people briefed on the plans.
As the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act faces the final weeks of potential Senate floor time in which it can most realistically get passed this year, the major unfinished section is the legislation's restriction on senior government officials' personal business interests in the crypto sector. Democrats have demanded such limits, most significantly to address President Donald Trump's own ties, but negotiators have been unable to fix on a compromise even as the clock winds down in the Senate calendar.
White House officials — potentially including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to one person — are expected to meet with senators to work on closing that gap, the people said. Though text of an almost final version of the Clarity Act was expected to begin circulating, it may slip later in the week while talks continue, one of the people said.
White House spokespeople didn't immediately comment on the meeting plans.
Recently, negotiations among senators from both parties were said to hit a wall over the ethics provision, in which Democrats have demanded the president, vice president and members of Congress be restricted in their personal crypto ties. The disclosure from Trump that he'd made more than $1 billion from his industry involvement in 2025 added fuel to the critics.
On Tuesday, a few Democratic senators held a press conference to call for Clarity Act opposition if it doesn't sever Trump's "corrupt" ties to the sector. But that vocal group didn't include Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who has been at the front of the Clarity Act ethics negotiation for months. Gallego, alongside fellow Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks, who both voted for the bill in committee, said in May that they would not support the bill's final passage without an ethics provision.
Industry insiders have contended that getting the ethics section nailed down would launch Clarity through the remainder of its Senate hurdles, but Trump's willingness to allow restrictions that might affect him has remained an uncertainty.
The Senate is set to depart Washington for its lengthy summer recess after the first week of August, leaving only a few weeks to work out a final Clarity Act effort before the lawmakers scatter and begin focusing more intently on November's midterm elections.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he'll press forward with Clarity later this month, whether the final language is set or not.