U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, renewing pressure on lawmakers to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the country’s cryptocurrency industry.
Trump made the remarks Wednesday during a White House meeting with senior crypto and financial-industry executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Mike Selig also attended the meeting.
“We need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act,” Trump said, calling for what he described as a “fair version” of the legislation.
The president argued that clearer rules would help the U.S. maintain its technological advantage and encourage another wave of innovation in the digital-asset industry.
The renewed push comes as the CLARITY Act faces a difficult path through the Senate.
What is the CLARITY Act?
The Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act of 2025, formally introduced as H.R. 3633, seeks to establish a federal regulatory framework for digital assets and clarify the respective responsibilities of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Among other provisions, the legislation establishes definitions for digital commodities, creates registration frameworks for digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers, and addresses the treatment of digital assets that originate from investment contracts.
A central objective is to provide greater clarity around whether particular digital assets fall under securities or commodities regulation.
For crypto businesses, that distinction is significant because it determines which regulator has jurisdiction and what compliance requirements companies face.
Senate remains the key hurdle
Despite the industry’s support for clearer market rules, the legislation has stalled in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed for a cloture vote scheduled for September 15, when lawmakers return from their recess. The delay followed months of negotiations and disagreements surrounding the legislation.
Ethics provisions have become one of the most contentious issues.
Democratic lawmakers have argued that the legislation needs stronger restrictions preventing government officials from benefiting from their own cryptocurrency interests. The debate has particular relevance to Trump, whose family crypto ventures generated more than $1.4 billion in income last year, according to his financial disclosure. Trump has said he has no day-to-day role in his family’s crypto businesses.
The political dispute has added another layer of uncertainty to a bill that the crypto industry has spent months lobbying Congress to advance.
Regulators are moving while Congress debates
The CLARITY Act is not the only development reshaping U.S. crypto policy.
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new rules Tuesday that could make it easier for crypto companies to raise capital through token offerings without triggering traditional securities regulations.
Meanwhile, the CFTC is advancing its own crypto policy agenda, with its Innovation Advisory Committee scheduled to examine digital assets and other emerging technologies.
That creates an increasingly important distinction in the U.S. regulatory landscape: Congress is working toward legislation that could establish a statutory market-structure framework, while the SEC and CFTC are using their existing authority to reshape the rules governing digital assets.
The result could be significant for exchanges, token issuers, financial institutions and blockchain companies operating in the United States.
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Why the CLARITY Act matters for crypto markets
For the digital-asset industry, the importance of the legislation extends beyond simply defining whether a token is a security or commodity.
A clearer division of authority between the SEC and CFTC could reduce regulatory uncertainty for companies building products and infrastructure in the sector.
The House version of the legislation includes provisions covering digital commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers, primary and secondary transactions involving digital commodities, mature blockchain systems and registration requirements for intermediaries.
The legislation therefore represents a potential shift from the fragmented regulatory environment that has characterised the U.S. crypto market toward a more defined statutory framework.
But the path to enactment remains uncertain.
A September test for US crypto policy
Trump’s intervention puts additional political weight behind the September Senate proceedings.
The industry now faces a pivotal test: whether lawmakers can resolve disagreements over ethics, consumer protections and other provisions sufficiently to move the bill forward.
For now, the CLARITY Act remains legislation in progress — not U.S. law.
But with the White House pushing Congress, the SEC advancing new crypto rules and the CFTC preparing its own regulatory initiatives, the direction of U.S. digital-asset policy is becoming increasingly clear.
The next major test comes when the Senate reconvenes, and the legislation returns to the floor in September.
