President Donald Trump pressed Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act during a White House meeting with crypto industry executives and regulators, pushing the Senate to act on the stalled market-structure bill before a cloture motion expected Sept. 15.
Addressing a room of exchange CEOs and agency heads on Aug. 19, Trump cast the legislation as a geopolitical necessity. “Now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” he said, according to Decrypt. “It’s a very, very powerful structure legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else.”
The bill would set federal rules for digital assets and divide regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC. The House passed it in July 2025. Since then, it has stalled in the Senate. Republicans still need roughly six Democratic votes to clear the 60-vote procedural threshold, Decrypt reported.
Executives in attendance included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith, and Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. CFTC Chair Michael Selig, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, and White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt joined the president.
The gathering was staged ahead of the inaugural session of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee, scheduled for the following day. Selig said the agency would explore moving forward on crypto regulation at that meeting, noting Congress would not return to session for another month, Cointelegraph reported.
Armstrong told attendees the bill could draw “more than 60 votes” once the Senate addresses a cloture motion on Sept. 15. He said it would make U.S. crypto policy “durable into the future, so it could survive for decades and decades to come.” Trump pushed back on the partisanship framing: “It’s very bipartisan, I would say. Lot of Democrats support.”
That claim drew pushback within hours. Senator Ruben Gallego (D), speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, said Trump’s definition of “fair” was self-serving. “I think, unfortunately, what the president means is fair to him,” Gallego said, referring to ethics language in the bill. “The president is agreeing to some limitation. It’s not his place to agree. It’s the place of the Congress, the Senate and then the White House.”
In practice, that gap (between a White House pushing for speed and Senate Democrats insisting on ethics guardrails) is what has kept the bill parked since July. The Senate left for August recess without holding a procedural vote.
Trump also said Selig is working to bring Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, into the United States “in a fully compliant and legal fashion.” “Working very hard on that,” Trump said. “We would really like to see it.” Neither article provided figures on any HYPE token price move tied to the remarks.
The president pointed to his administration’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, digital asset stockpile, ban on a U.S. CBDC, and the GENIUS Act as policies adopted since he returned to office. He accused the prior administration of driving crypto businesses overseas through “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.” Separately, the SEC the same week proposed rules that would exempt certain token offerings from securities regulations, potentially making it easier for crypto companies to issue tokens and raise money.
Executives from prediction-market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket were not invited. A person familiar with the event told Politico the White House chose to focus the meeting solely on crypto.
The Sept. 15 cloture motion is the next concrete milestone. Whether six Senate Democrats cross the aisle is not yet known.
