CLARITY Act draft set $15,000 divestment threshold for officials
A Senate draft of the CLARITY Act would have required senior officials holding $15,000 or more in digital-asset equity to divest, but the rule did not reach the family business.
The final Senate draft of the CLARITY Act contained an ethics provision that would have required senior federal officials holding equity worth at least $15,000 in businesses that issue or sponsor digital assets to sell that interest, according to reporting from CryptoSlate. The episode marked a rare moment in which lawmakers came close to writing a specific dollar threshold into a crypto conflict-of-interest rule.
President Trump backed the ethics rule, the report said, but the provision stopped short of the family business, leaving its reach narrower than the debate over official crypto holdings might suggest.
What the draft proposed
- A minimum threshold of $15,000 in equity holdings for the rule to apply
- Coverage for senior federal officials with stakes in firms that issue or sponsor digital assets
- A requirement that affected officials divest the interest
The CLARITY Act is the Senate's digital-asset market-structure legislation, and the ethics language sat among its more contested elements. The reporting indicates the divestment standard advanced further in the drafting process than similar proposals typically have, before being limited in scope.
Questions about how elected and appointed officials' crypto holdings should be governed have drawn increasing attention in Washington, and any threshold-based divestment requirement would represent a notable precedent for federal ethics rules. The provision's fate depends on the broader bill, which remains under negotiation.