The crypto market structure bill's future could depend on the reception of legislative language hashed out by Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego, according to people briefed on the effort who say the initial job is done to revamp the part of the bill that would limit government officials from direct ties to cryptocurrency projects.
It's unclear who has seen the latest effort from the bipartisan duo that's been trying to negotiate a final acceptable compromise, but it would need to get approval from the White House and buy-in from a lot of Democrats before the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act can knock down its final dominoes and get to a vote in the U.S. Senate.
The ethics piece has President Donald Trump's crypto business empire squarely in mind as it seeks to ban senior government officials from direct ties to the industry. Trump recently agreed to accept a narrow version of this concept, surprising some crypto insiders with his willingness, and the White House hailed it as an unprecedented ethics constraint that directly affects the president. But Democratic opponents argued it's structured in such a way that Trump won't have to do much — if anything — to comply, and that he won't have enforcement worries from a Department of Justice led by his appointed loyalists.
Republican Tillis and Democrat Gallego agreed to try bridging the gap, and the people said the lawmakers indicated they've struck new common ground, though they didn't share any details. Crypto industry lobbyists are eagerly watching the result, because time is running out before the Senate breaks for its August recess, and they contend that finishing the government conflicts-of-interest section is likely to provide momentum to knock out the rest.
Spokespeople for the senators and White House didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the status of the ethics negotiation.
Though the Clarity Act has taken hit after hit in congressional deliberations, it's still moving, like the John Wick of legislation. But it's reached its climactic scene as the Senate heads toward its final week of business before its summer break.
There are two timelines at war, now. First, the Senate's own calendar is famously difficult to negotiate, with any contentious bill requiring days of floor time. Each passing hour narrows the legislation's odds as just seven days remain before the recess, when senators will leave Washington and largely shift focus to the consequential midterm elections bearing down on them.
The other time crunch has been the clock ticking on the negotiating table, where the two parties and the White House are still working to round up the necessary 60 votes. Their final effort must win over a lot of resistant Democrats and a few reluctant Republicans.
Crypto lobbyists are fervently hoping that negotiators — especially Tillis and Gallego — can find a workable middle ground, circulate the refurbished bill again and watch it advance through the Senate voting process. At this point, Senate Majority Leader John Thune's prediction remains sturdy: The bill almost certainly doesn't have enough time to finish the Senate's multi-stage process before the break.
But if it were to get started and potentially clear an initial 60-vote hurdle before next week is out, that could be enough to get it on a winning path. To give that possibility its best chance, the industry would want to see Thune roll out the first motion before the end of the week on what's called "cloture," the procedure that sets a bill up for votes.
Cloture timing is complicated and somewhat flexible, but it involves multiple votes stretched over days, some of which must be conducted as the sole focus of the Senate, without any other business afoot. It concludes with a 30-hour period of debate and a final vote. That said, the Senate already has some other live cloture situations, including for its Russia sanctions bill — Thune's first priority — and the current package of federal nominations in need of confirmation.
Clarity is one of several pre-break priorities hanging around the Senate at the moment. Anything not completed by next week is shunted toward another brief window of a few weeks in September in which the Senate must finish everything that needs to get done before the members face voters in November, potentially including a federal budget process to keep the government open.
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