Trump agrees to ethics provision as crypto bill inches closer to Senate vote

President Donald Trump has agreed to ethics language — potentially moving the ball forward to getting cryptocurrency legislation passed into law. 

An industry source told The Block on Monday evening that an agreement had been reached on the ethics provision after months of negotiations.

"We are now hearing Trump has agreed to an ethics provision," the source said.

Crypto in America's Eleanor Terrett and PunchbowlNews' Brendan Pedersen earlier reported the news. Pedersen reported that Democrats had not seen the text yet. 

The provision was discussed during a July 16 meeting between President Trump, Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, and White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt. While no agreement was reached at the time, The Block previously reported, the measure had received the president's sign-off later on Monday.

The Block has reached out to the White House and offices for Moreno and Lummis for comment.

Ethics has been the final hurdle in getting broad crypto legislation passed into law. The bill, called the Clarity Act, would regulate the digital asset industry for the first time comprehensively at the federal level, while giving jurisdiction to the Securities and Exchange Commission and more broadly to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 

Ahead of last week's meeting, Politico reported that an ethics provision provided to the president was not agreed to by some Democrats. 

Lawmakers and the White House have spent much of the past year negotiating ethics provisions that would limit how presidents, vice presidents, members of Congress and other federal officials can profit from digital assets while in office. At the center of the dispute has been Trump's memecoins and his family's company, World Liberty Financial. In financial disclosures released last month, it showed that Trump received millions of dollars related to WLF, intensifying debate over ethics safeguards. 

Bill text is expected to be released in the coming days. Afterward, the full Senate could vote on the bill. The Senate has only until the first week of August to vote on the bill. If the Senate passes the bill, it goes back to the House before going to Trump's desk.

One source familiar said on Monday evening that text could come as early as Monday night but could also be pushed back a bit.

The longer the wait is to get the bill text, the better the chances it will be bipartisan, the source said. 

Top White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt has been leading the efforts and originally had plans to leave his post this week due to mandatory training for the Georgia Army National Guard. However, on Monday in a post on X, he said his training had been postponed. 

Meanwhile, Witt's deputy director, Harry Jung, said he would be leaving the job in two weeks.

"Serving in POTUS administration and working for [David Sacks] in the [White House Crypto Council] has been a great honor," he said in a post on X. "These past two years transformed America's position on crypto. I'm proud of all we accomplished."