On August 6, the U.S. Senate postponed a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, which aims to structure the cryptocurrency market, until after the August recess, as confirmed by Republican Majority Leader John Thune to Politico.

“The Democrats are insisting that there will be no vote on the CLARITY Act. Regardless, I have been collaborating with the authors of the bill. Senator [Cynthia] Lummis has been fantastic, and we will prioritize this bill as soon as we return,” he stated.

The Senate will begin its summer break on August 7 and reconvene in Washington on September 14. Legislators will have roughly three weeks to address matters before the November midterm elections.

Thune has yet to initiate a vote to end the debates on the CLARITY Act, a necessary procedure to conclude discussions and move on to subsequent steps. If he does not file a motion before the Senate's break, consideration of the bill will be delayed until at least mid-September.

To pass the legislation, Republicans (holding 53 seats) need to gather 60 votes, meaning they must secure the backing of at least seven Democrats. However, there is a lack of unity within the Republican party itself: according to Politico, Josh Hawley is pushing to exclude risks associated with bank deposit withdrawals, while Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have expressed dissatisfaction with other aspects of the bill.

Polymarket currently assesses the likelihood of the CLARITY Act being signed into law by the end of the year at 14%, a significant drop from 55% at the start of July.

Source: Polymarket.

Trump May Benefit from Tax Deferral

A key unresolved issue remains the ethics provision. Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego sent an updated proposal to the White House last week, mandating that the U.S. president divest from cryptocurrency businesses, as reported by Bloomberg, citing informed sources.

They indicated that the forced sale of assets could allow Donald Trump to defer federal capital gains taxes for years or potentially avoid them altogether, resulting in savings amounting to millions of dollars.

The same proposal transfers the authority to enforce ethical standards to state attorneys general. Previous drafts, including one agreed upon by Trump at the end of July, had reserved these powers solely for the U.S. Department of Justice, which is headed by a presidential appointee, and explicitly prohibited state intervention.

The text of the amendments has not yet been published and remains a subject of negotiation between the White House and lawmakers.

According to his financial disclosure, cryptocurrency ventures earned Trump over $1.4 billion in 2025, with significant income coming from the meme coin TRUMP and the DeFi platform World Liberty Financial.

It is worth noting that on May 14, the Senate Banking Committee approved the CLARITY Act by a vote of 15 to 9.

Previously, Democrats demanded the inclusion of provisions addressing conflicts of interest for officials.