The window to pass a comprehensive crypto market structure bill before the Senate breaks for a month-long recess is closing, with ethics a dividing issue for many lawmakers. Two US senators on opposite sides of the political aisle have reportedly sent revised ethics guidelines to the White House as part of discussions over a cryptocurrency market structure bill in Congress. According to a Thursday PunchBowl report, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ruben Gallego submitted a counteroffer to the Trump administration that included a change to ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The changes would reportedly address concerns from many lawmakers in the first draft by allowing state authorities to enforce a ban on federal officials issuing or sponsoring tokens rather than the US Attorney General. Gallego, a Democrat, previously said that provisions around ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity “must be strengthened” and he would continu...
Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim call on Treasury’s Scott Bessent to review a UAE-backed investment in the Trump-linked crypto firm over national security concerns. Two US senators are pressing the Treasury Department to investigate a reported foreign investment in a crypto venture tied to the Trump family, raising concerns about national security, foreign influence and access to sensitive financial data. In a Friday letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New Jersey Senator Andy Kim asked the government to determine whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should investigate a deal in which a UAE–backed investment vehicle agreed to purchase a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLFI) for roughly $500 million. The lawmakers wrote that the transaction reportedly occurred days before Donald Trump’s inauguration and would make the foreign fund the firm’s largest shareholder and its only publicly known outside investor. They asked Besse...
A series of ads reportedly aired on Fox News, calling on the public to contact their senators to remove DeFi provisions from the CLARITY Act bill. An anti-decentralized finance group is reportedly running advertisements on Fox News encouraging the public to pressure their Senators into passing crypto market structure legislation that excludes DeFi provisions perceived to be threatening to the banking industry. According to two screenshots shared Friday on X by Crypto in America host Eleanor Terrett, the Investors For Transparency members wrote: "Tell Your Senator: Pass Crypto Legislation Without DeFi Provisions,” sharing a hotline number to contact their local Senators. “Don’t Let DeFi Stall Innovation,” another snippet of the ad said, which appears to echo concerns from banking lobbyists over the CLARITY Act permitting stablecoin issuers to offer interest-bearing products that could be disguised as bank-like deposits and potentially draw trillions of dollars from the traditional banking system. Read more