White House adviser defends Trump’s crypto ties after Clarity Act defeat

White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt defended President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency involvement following the Senate’s failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Speaking at a Georgetown University conference, Witt argued that Democrats were using the president’s crypto interests as a political weapon while ignoring similar ethics concerns in other legislation.

Unprecedented ethics proposals

Witt said the administration had agreed to two novel ethics provisions that would have required Trump to either divest his crypto holdings or place them in a blind trust, and would have allowed state attorneys general to sue the federal government for ethical lapses. He described these measures as “the most unprecedented, far‑reaching, stringent, restrictive ethics provision that has ever been agreed to by any president.”

Political double standards

The adviser contrasted the focus on Trump’s crypto ties with the passage of a major housing bill that, in his view, faced no comparable ethics scrutiny despite the president’s real‑estate background. He also noted that many senators on banking committees hold and trade stocks in financial‑services firms they regulate.

Banking lobby influence

Witt blamed banking lobbyists for undermining the Clarity Act, especially provisions that would have extended stablecoin protections. He described the opposition as a “wildfire” started by larger banks that spread to community banks, suggesting that the lobby’s defeat of the bill revealed its true motivations.

Next steps

With the legislative route stalled, Witt indicated that the focus would shift to federal regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, to address digital‑asset market structure and consumer‑protection issues.