Senate Republicans on Wednesday circulated a 616-page draft of the Clarity Act, a landmark cryptocurrency bill that includes a White House-approved ethics provision and could be brought to the Senate floor next week.
The draft's enforcement language says that the attorney general "shall bring a civil action in an appropriate district court of the United States against" a government official who "knowingly and willfully violates" the requirements in the provision or "a digital asset intermediary that knowingly and willingly violates" them, and it specifies that "no action, public or private, may be brought under this section by any State attorney general or any person other than the Attorney General."
The ethics proposal stipulates that federal officials "shall not, in exchange for consideration," "issue a digital asset" or "sponsor a digital asset" while serving as a public employee, applies the prohibitions to public officials or employees and their spouses, sunsets in 2029, and bars crypto companies from listing assets that are "issued" or "sponsored" by federal officials in violation of the provision.
The new language does not currently have sign-off from any Democrats, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., called enforcement that empowers only the Department of Justice "an unserious offer."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he intends to put the measure up for a vote whether it has bipartisan support and told reporters, "Hopefully," adding, "Once the text is out, we'll have to figure out what the traffic will bear, what changes have to be incorporated in order to 60 on the floor."
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., the bill's lead sponsor, provided the measure's text, and the updated draft would ban presidents and other federal officials from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrency while tapping the Department of Justice to enforce the ban with fines of up to $250,000 per day; Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said President Donald Trump signed off on the ethics section of the bill, a recent disclosure shows Trump made about $1.2 billion in crypto-related income during his first year back in the White House including about $580 million connected with World Liberty Financial, World Liberty launched the USD1 stablecoin in March 2025 after Trump began his second term, and banking groups said the measure "still puts at risk the local lending that drives economic activity in the U.S.".