Seven Democratic senators will vote against the CLARITY Act despite revised ethics language. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushed for a floor vote as the bill faces a 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.
Updated language in the CLARITY Act failed to secure the Democratic support its sponsors had hoped for. Seven Democratic senators will vote against the bill in its current form, Punchbowl News reported Wednesday.
The group includes Cory Booker, Angela Alsobrooks, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ruben Gallego, John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner and Raphael Warnock. Gallego and Alsobrooks had supported an earlier version in the Senate Banking Committee, making their defection a setback for the bill's sponsors.
The revised text added ethics provisions meant to address concerns about President Trump's crypto holdings. Amanda Fischer, policy director at Better Markets, dismissed the changes as insufficient.
“Quick analysis of the laughable ‘ethics’ language in this draft: POTUS can continue to profit from his existing crypto ventures. He has a year plus to put his crypto ownership interests in a blind trust. No restrictions on earning trading fee income or reserve asset income,” Fischer said in a statement.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime critic of the digital asset sector, said the revised text “does nothing to stop President Trump from making his next $1.4 billion from crypto.” She called the bill “dead on arrival.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged the chamber to bring the legislation to a floor vote. The exchange operator, which holds a weak Alpha Score of 25 per AlphaScala’s proprietary metric, has a direct stake in the outcome. Armstrong argued that without federal rules, innovation has moved offshore.
“The bill represents a true bipartisan compromise with thousands of hours of work on both sides, and it couldn’t come at a better time,” Armstrong wrote on X. “The status quo in the U.S. isn’t working. There’s no federal framework, so bad actors like FTX can harm U.S. customers, and much of the industry has gone offshore, totally outside U.S. purview. This bill fixes that with strong consumer protections, real tools for law enforcement, and a path for America to lead in this industry.”
Armstrong added that 70% of American voters say the U.S. should have already passed comprehensive crypto legislation.
The arithmetic is the same problem the bill has faced since the start. To avoid a filibuster, the legislation needs 60 votes. With seven Democrats publicly opposed and more likely to follow, the margin is tight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune appears ready to call the bill for a vote, which would force Democrats to choose between supporting the compromise or opposing it.
No date has been set for a floor vote.
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