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Senate Draft Bars Officials From Paid Token Launches
New CLARITY Act draft bars senior officials from paid token issuance, adds disclosure rules, and sunsets after the current presidential term. DOJ gets sole enforcement power.
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The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a new draft of the CLARITY Act on July 22 that pairs crypto market-structure rules with a ban on senior officials issuing or sponsoring digital assets for pay, according to a committee statement and the circulated bill text.
The ethics language sits in a new Division C, running from sections 30101 through 30106. Proposed 5 U.S.C. 13152(a) says a covered individual may not, in exchange for consideration, issue or sponsor a digital asset while serving in office. The rule also reaches the official's spouse, closing an obvious workaround, the bill text says.
Covered individuals include the President, the Vice President, senior executive-branch officials above the filing threshold, Members of Congress, and judicial officers and employees. The definition draws from existing federal disclosure rules under 5 U.S.C. 13103(f).
The ban is not a blanket prohibition on owning crypto. It targets paid issuance or sponsorship. Passive investment holdings remain allowed, subject to disclosure and conflict rules.
Section 30102 adds a financial-disclosure requirement for digital assets sold for remuneration when their fair market value exceeds $1,000 at the close of the preceding calendar year.
Penalties are steep. A covered individual who knowingly and willfully violates the ban must disgorge all profit to the Treasury and pay a civil penalty equal to 10 percent of the consideration received or $500,000, whichever is less.