US Republicans send ‘final’ CLARITY Act offer to Democrats

Senate Republicans on Sunday released revised text of the CLARITY Act aimed at swaying Democrats ahead of a procedural vote on Tuesday, featuring major changes to rules relating to government officials’ involvement with digital assets.

The 635-page proposal, released by US Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis alongside Chairmen John Boozman and Tim Scott, also includes changes to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) and provisions governing stablecoin yield. Lummis said the new ethics provisions had been agreed to by US President Donald Trump. 

“After a year of intense daily bipartisan negotiations, this bill is ready,” she said. “President Trump voluntarily agreed to unprecedented ethics restrictions, holding every federally elected official, judge, and their spouses to some of the toughest ethics restrictions in US history.”

The new bill text comes just two days before a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act on Tuesday at 2:15pm ET, which will determine whether the Senate can advance the bill toward floor consideration. The proposal has been described as a final offer on the bill, a Republican aide told reporters on Sunday.

Key changes in final CLARITY Act text 

Lummis said the final bill text reflects a year of bipartisan negotiations and 126 changes made at the request of Democrats. 

The revised ethics rules would allow state attorneys general to enforce bans on federal officials issuing, sponsoring or holding significant financial interests in digital assets, and on exchanges listing assets in violation of those bans. 

Covered individuals would also be required to divest significant financial interests or place them in a qualified blind trust. Violations would carry civil penalties of $500,000 or 20% of the amount received in the prohibited transaction, whichever is greater, with the ethics provisions taking effect 360 days after enactment, or sooner if implementing regulations are finalized.

On stablecoins, the Treasury Secretary would be required to introduce rules restricting rewards if they determine that community banks are losing deposits on a substantial scale, though the authority would expire 18 months after the bill becomes law. 

Meanwhile, the revised BRCA would retain protections against treating developers as money transmitters or financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and extend the protections to miners and validators, which were previously excluded. 

It would also remove references to Section 1960 of Title 18 of the US Code, which relates to the prohibition of unlicensed money transmitting businesses.  

Other changes would strengthen safeguards around affiliate trading and conflicts of interest at digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers, and clarify how consumer protection laws apply.