U.S. Senate Unveils Updated CLARITY Act to Bar Officials from Crypto Profits

BlockBeats reported that on July 23, crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett said Republican senators, after a briefing call with industry participants, released a revised version of the CLARITY Act. The updated ethics framework was drafted in consultation with the White House and Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno, and it has not yet won Democratic backing. Under the new text, the president, vice president, members of Congress, federal judges, and other covered officials, as well as their spouses, would be barred from receiving compensation via the issuance or sponsorship of digital assets while in office. The restrictions would remain in place through January 20, 2029. Covered officials would also have to divest their cryptocurrency holdings and investments in crypto companies, or move them into blind trusts they do not control. Any crypto asset sale exceeding $1,000 would require disclosure. The U.S. Department of Justice would receive civil enforcement authority for ethics violations, including the ability to pursue exchanges that knowingly list prohibited tokens. Democrats object to assigning enforcement solely to the Justice Department without also granting authority to state attorneys general, and the language may still be revised in the coming days. The revised bill keeps the BRCA and the Keep Your Coins Act. It specifies that developers of noncustodial software and providers of blockchain infrastructure will not be treated as money transmitters solely for maintaining decentralized networks, and it affirms individuals' right to self-custody crypto assets. The stablecoin yield provision is unchanged: it would prohibit interest payments on idle payment stablecoin balances, while allowing rewards tied to real activity such as transactions or staking.