Trump urged crypto CEOs to back the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, but the bill lacks 60 Senate votes. Democratic demands over ethics rules tied to Trump's businesses remain the sticking point.
President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act at a White House event Wednesday with crypto and technology executives. He said lawmakers needed to take the next step on crypto market structure and asked for a fair version of the bill.
The Clarity Act needs 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans are short by roughly seven Democrats. The bill returns to the floor in September after the chamber broke for August recess without holding a procedural vote. Democratic negotiators want ethics limits covering the president's crypto businesses. That same fight has stalled the bill for months.
Trump cast the legislation as a competitive weapon. He said it would keep the country ahead of China and open the door to the next wave of innovations. He criticized the previous administration's enforcement posture and pointed to his own record: the strategic bitcoin reserve, the digital asset stockpile, the ban on a U.S. central bank digital currency, and the GENIUS Act.
Attendees included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, Kraken's Arjun Sethi, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith, Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and a16z crypto founder Chris Dixon. SEC Chair Paul Atkins, CFTC Chair Michael Selig, and White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt also joined.
Armstrong made the industry's case in the room. He described the bill as a bipartisan compromise and argued it would make the administration's progress durable for decades. Atkins tied the SEC's own crypto proposal this week to the same objective. He said the agency's rule would give entrepreneurs certainty to raise capital in the U.S. and that sending Clarity to the president's desk remains the priority.
The gathering preceded the first meeting of the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday. Its roster includes executives from Kraken, Anchorage Digital, Grayscale and OKX. Prediction market operators including Kalshi and Polymarket were not invited to the White House event. Politico reported the administration chose to keep the focus on crypto.
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