US Republicans send ‘final’ CLARITY Act offer to Democrats

Senate Republicans on Sunday circulated a revised 635-page draft of the CLARITY Act that they say reflects extensive bipartisan negotiations and is intended to persuade Democrats ahead of a procedural vote set for Tuesday afternoon. The text was released by Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis together with Senate colleagues John Boozman and Tim Scott; a Republican aide characterized the package as a final offer. The updated bill incorporates major changes across several areas of crypto policy. It adds new ethics restrictions that Lummis said President Donald Trump agreed to, and she described the draft as incorporating 126 changes requested by Democrats after roughly a year of talks. The ethics language would bar federal officials from issuing, sponsoring or holding significant financial interests in digital assets and would let state attorneys general enforce those bans, including against exchanges that list disallowed assets. Under the ethics provisions covered individuals would have to divest substantial holdings or place them in a qualified blind trust. Violations would be subject to civil penalties equal to $500,000 or 20% of the amount received in the prohibited transaction, whichever is greater. Those ethics rules would take effect 360 days after enactment or sooner if implementing regulations are completed. The draft also revises stablecoin and developer protections. Treasury would gain temporary authority to restrict rewards tied to stablecoins if it determines community banks are losing deposits on a substantial scale; that authority would expire 18 months after the bill becomes law. The revised Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act keeps protections that prevent treating developers as money transmitters or financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and now extends similar protections to miners and validators, while removing references to Section 1960 of Title 18. Other adjustments aim to strengthen safeguards on affiliate trading and conflicts of interest at digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers, and to clarify how consumer protection laws apply. Market indicators showed a modest rise in the chance of passage: Polymarket odds for the CLARITY Act passing this year reached 35% on Monday, the highest level since late July. The Senate’s procedural vote on Tuesday will decide whether the bill can move forward to floor consideration.