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Negotiators working on the US Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act are drafting an ethics addendum that would require President Trump to divest from crypto-related businesses while allowing him to defer capital gains taxes on those holdings, Bloomberg reported on August 6. The provision is being negotiated between the White House and lawmakers as the broader bill stalls in the Senate. The CLARITY Act has already cleared the House 294 to 134 on July 17, 2025, leaving the Senate as the only remaining obstacle to passage. Passage odds have collapsed from 82% in February to around 28% as of late July, according to prediction market Polymarket.

Trump's June 2026 financial disclosure reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income. Approximately $800 million came from World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi protocol co-founded by his family, and roughly $635 million came from sales of the Trump memecoin. DeFi refers to decentralized finance, meaning financial services that run on public blockchains without traditional intermediaries such as banks or brokerages. The president's $800 million in WLFI income arrived alongside severe losses for the platform's own investors: WLFI investors suffered approximately $674 million in realized and unrealized losses, and the WLFI governance token crashed more than 50% within 48 hours of its derivatives debut.

The proposed tax deferral mechanism is linked to an existing federal tool available under US tax law. Under this framework, government officials who sell assets to resolve conflict-of-interest situations can receive a Certificate of Divestiture from the Office of Government Ethics, which allows them to defer capital gains taxes on those sales. Bloomberg described the addendum as permitting Trump to "defer capital gains levies on his crypto holdings," though the reporting did not identify the specific statutory vehicle by name. The precise scope of any deferral benefit, including whether it would be limited to gains arising from a required divestiture rather than functioning as a general tax break, has not been confirmed by the available sourcing and remains subject to further legal analysis.

The ethics provisions face pointed criticism on two fronts. First, the current Senate draft restricts only assets personally "issued" or "sponsored" by covered officials. That language leaves licensing deals, revenue-sharing arrangements, and holdings in family-controlled companies largely outside the rule's reach. Transparency International US stated that the CLARITY Act "leaves Trump's core crypto conflicts unchecked" because it does not clearly block "the main ways President Trump has accumulated crypto wealth."

Second, the ethics clauses are written to expire on January 20, 2029, a date that aligns closely with the scheduled end of Trump's second term. Democratic critics have argued that ethics rules should be permanent rather than timed to a particular administration's exit.

The bill's Senate math is difficult regardless of the ethics debate. Republicans hold 53 seats but need 60 votes to advance the bill past a procedural hurdle, meaning they require between seven and ten Democratic votes. Senators Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland had confirmed support for an earlier version of the bill, but both have since signaled they would not support the revised draft, saying the current ethics language does not go far enough. Senators Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, and Jeff Merkley formally withdrew support in mid-July after a merged Senate draft dropped a key ethics provision Democrats had treated as a precondition.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated the bill will miss the pre-recess window around August 7. Brian Gardner, an analyst at Stifel, told Disruption Banking on July 31, 2026: "The bill probably needs to get through the Senate by the end of July. Missing recess would cause prospects to deteriorate materially." That end-of-July threshold has now passed without a Senate floor vote.

The Stakes Extend Well Beyond Washington

In Nigeria and South Africa, where stablecoin adoption has reached roughly 80% across surveyed markets according to a report cited by The Whistler NG, the fate of US crypto legislation has tangible consequences.

USDT and USDC, the two dominant dollar-pegged stablecoins, have become primary savings and remittance instruments for millions of users locked out of traditional banking. The CLARITY Act's stagnation means the GENIUS Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025 and which established basic stablecoin rules, remains the only active US crypto framework. That narrower foundation leaves some dollar-stablecoin issuance rules partially undefined for offshore users. For context, sending $200 through traditional remittance rails to sub-Saharan Africa costs around 9% on average, against a roughly 6% global average, placing the regional cost approximately 50% above the worldwide benchmark based on figures in the source data.

Stablecoin corridors already undercut those fees, but their long-term viability depends on US issuers remaining liquid.

South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority has approved 310 crypto service provider licenses out of 533 total applications, a figure that reflects active regulatory selectivity and a momentum that requires some degree of US counterpart certainty to build upon.

In India, regulators are preparing for crypto-asset data exchanges under the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework starting in April 2027. US legislative clarity on which entities qualify as regulated intermediaries will directly shape what data India receives under those cross-border reporting agreements. More broadly, a US legislative process visibly shaped by the financial interests of a sitting president who has reported over $1.4 billion in crypto-related income gives ammunition to central bankers in Abuja, Mumbai, and Nairobi who already view crypto as a politically compromised system.

That perception risk is difficult to quantify, but easy to observe: liberalisation advocates across South Asia and Africa frequently cite US regulatory leadership as a model. If that model is seen as captured, their domestic arguments weaken accordingly.

The CLARITY Act has no Senate floor vote scheduled. Galaxy Digital puts passage odds at around 30%. August 10 has been identified by analysts at the Bitcoin Foundation as a critical internal deadline tied to the Senate's recess calendar; if the bill does not clear procedural hurdles by then, the legislative window for 2026 effectively closes.