Negotiations Narrow to Ethics Clause Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) says negotiations over the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act have reached a pivotal stage, with the remainin
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) says negotiations over the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act have reached a pivotal stage, with the remaining dispute concentrated almost entirely on the bill's ethics provision. In a post on X, he described the current state of talks as little more than final "word smithing" around the clause, signalling that the substance of the broader legislation is largely agreed upon.
The bill has already cleared significant hurdles. The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act in May 2026 by a vote of 15-9, though the two Democrats who crossed the aisle made clear their support on the Senate floor was conditional on further progress on the ethics provision addressing government officials' ties to the crypto industry. The bill was subsequently placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar, making it eligible for a full floor vote, but it must still pass a 60-vote threshold, be reconciled with the House version, and receive a presidential signature before it can become law.
The ethics provision at issue would bar senior government officials, including the president, from holding personal crypto interests. Multiple lawmakers have stated explicitly that they will not vote for the bill without it, including the Democrats who supported it during the Senate Banking Committee markup.
Novogratz urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to move past partisan positioning. He argued that Americans do not want politicians gaining a financial edge over ordinary citizens, and that both Republicans and Democrats understand this, pointing to polling data. He called on lawmakers to "read the room" and prioritise the long-term good of the American people, specifically urging Republican senators to push harder with the White House while encouraging Democratic senators to avoid trying to resolve every government-wide corruption issue within this single piece of legislation.
Senator Lummis has previously warned that a failure to pass the bill in 2026 would likely mean waiting until 2030, after a Congress of unknown composition, to restart the process. The window is narrow: only around two active Senate weeks remain before the effective August 7 recess cutoff, leaving little room for a complex floor fight.
The broader stakes extend well beyond Washington. The bill is designed to resolve a decade of jurisdictional conflict between two federal agencies, the SEC and the CFTC, that both claimed authority over crypto markets but neither had a statutory mandate to govern them comprehensively. A statute would hand builders and exchanges a registration path rather than a guessing game and, because it would be law rather than agency guidance, a future administration could not quietly reverse it.
Sources:Latham and Watkins: US Crypto Policy Tracker, Legislative DevelopmentsCrypto Times: Galaxy CEO Urges Passage of CLARITY ActYahoo Finance: Senate CLARITY Act Floor Vote Hinges on Ethics Rules and August Recess Deadline
