Three Senate Democrats urged colleagues to oppose the Clarity Act amid Trump's crypto ties

Three Senate Democrats used a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday to press their colleagues to reject the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, arguing the crypto market structure bill would shield President Donald Trump’s personal crypto profits unless it is rewritten. Their stand matters because the bill cannot clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster without at least seven Democratic votes, and the party is now weeks away from its summer recess.

Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon had expressed their objection to the act. However, they further cemented their opposition in line with a stance also held by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Van Hollen, who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, reportedly called the bill a “corrupt piece of legislation that will do a lot of harm.”

“Unless this system stops the corruption of the whole industry by Trump, this bill is useless,” Murphy said.  He added that the Clarity Act protects Trump’s position over an industry where the President also exercises regulatory powers. This means that it would be fundamentally corrupt if it protects the corruption of the Trumps through the Act. It was difficult for him to understand how the Act had been able to progress so far without a provision that disconnects Trump and his family from their cryptos.

Trump’s $1.4B crypto gains

The argument focuses on one specific provision that is not yet decided upon – the prohibition against the personal enrichment of high-level government officials, and even the president himself, in the cryptocurrency market. A report claimed that a new draft, and most likely the final draft, of the bill would be released by Tuesday, but that some aspects, including the ethics provision, were still in question. Negotiators and Democrats who supported the bill in the Banking Committee said they could not accept the bill in its final form without the provision.

Lummis says CLARITY text lands in days

Senator Lummis (@SenLummis) says the Senate will introduce CLARITY Act text within days and wants it passed before the August 7 recess. “It’s time to land this plane,” she said on Fox Business, capping nearly 10 months of work. Floor action… pic.twitter.com/57k9UxU1Jc

— BSCN (@BSCNews) July 14, 2026

Trump’s personal finances provided the opponents of the bill with new ammunition. His financial disclosures revealed that crypto had added about $1.4 billion to his fortune in 2025. As pointed out by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat working on the legislation, the single greatest source of income for him last year, worth $636 million, came from the memecoin that bears his name. She tried to introduce the rule that would make it illegal to issue digital assets during his term as president.

Murphy went a step further during his press conference when he accused Trump of creating “the largest bribery racket of the White House through crypto tokens” and “the most massive corruption scheme in the history of this country.”

While Gillibrand represents the position of the centrist Democrats who support regulation without the perception of favoritism, she made it clear during her interview that she is determined to pass the bill, although with some amendments. “Reforms must include restrictions on members of Congress, the President, and his spouse from profiting from the positions held.”

The fight over Clarity

The question remains whether the balance exists. Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets, a nonprofit organization, believes that Gillibrand, along with her colleagues, “make it their top priority and spend huge amounts of time pushing crypto’s special interest agenda.” According to him, the goal of this lobbying is to legalize the cryptocurrency market by using “the weakest law possible.” Reports suggest that the majority of the corporate spending for this year’s elections so far comes from the crypto sector.

There are many important things at stake. On the latest Coinbase earnings call, CEO Brian Armstrong indicated that such passage would “unlock a lot of institutional capital that’ll flow into the space broadly.” Those supporting the bill now have limited time to get it passed since, according to The Block, Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to bring it up for a vote regardless of its form.

For Trump, the issue has been that he is interested in the bill being signed into law. In one of his weekend social media posts, the president asked Congress to pass the legislation in honor of his friend Senator Lindsey Graham, who died recently – though he did not take part in the discussions. According to White House cryptocurrency advisor Patrick Witt, it is a “crucial week” for the bill. It seems that so far, no deal has been made that satisfies the White House, Republicans, and Democrats.

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