Trump Just Put Washington’s Crypto Battle In The Spotlight

Trump Turns Up Pressure On Senate Over US Crypto Regulation

9h35 ▪7min read ▪ byLuc Jose A.
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Donald Trump pressures the American Senate. This Wednesday, the president gathered several major figures from the crypto industry at the White House to try to unblock the CLARITY Act. The text, stuck in Congress, now crystallizes a confrontation that goes beyond the mere regulation of cryptos. Washington is also playing its ability to maintain its technological lead over China, against a backdrop of political tensions and disagreements over the sector’s framework.

In brief

• Donald Trump gathers crypto giants at the White House to demand the Senate adopt the CLARITY Act.
• Industry leaders support a law capable of securing American regulation for several decades.
• Parliamentarians oppose the Executive’s demands and denounce the risks of conflicts of interest of the Trump family.
• The SEC and the CFTC anticipate Congressional delays by publishing their own rules and exemptions for the sector.

Donald Trump’s offensive at the White House to impose a regulatory framework against Chinese competition

During a highly publicized press conference from the White House, President Donald Trump took the floor alongside major figures from the Web3 sector, notably Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Speaking before a gathering of leaders, the head of state urged senators to adopt “a fair version” of the CLARITY Act as soon as they return to Washington. The stated objective is unambiguous: to impose a clear market structure to imperatively keep the United States ahead of China.

This key legislation, formally approved by the House of Representatives in July 2025, has been stalled in the Senate for months due to fierce deadlocks concerning tokenized securities, the distribution of yieldsancial conflicts of interest of the Trump family with the crypto ecosystem

Picking up from presidential addresses and regulatory agency heads, Brian Armstrong firmly defended the historic scope of this structural reform. According to the Coinbase leader, ratifying the bill would make American crypto policy “sustainable for the future, so that it can survive for decades and decades to come”. Confident of the outcome of negotiations, the executive said the bill could surpass the symbolic threshold of “more than 60 votes” at the cloture vote scheduled for September 15 at the Senate.

A projection immediately supported by Donald Trump, who reaffirmed the bipartisan dimension of the discussions by stating: “it’s very bipartisan, I would say. Many Democrats support it”. This political push follows pressure exerted since July by the presidency following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, a great defender of the CLARITY Act, whom Donald Trump had made a symbol to push parliamentarians to vote for the bill in his honor.

To better understand the dynamics of this presidential mobilization, here are the structural elements and key players at the heart of the statements made at the White House :

• An unprecedented industry alignment : the presence alongside the president of figures like Brian Armstrong (Coinbase) or the brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Gemini) illustrates a sacred union of the American crypto giants behind a single text ;
• An explicit geopolitical imperative : Donald Trump openly frames <a href="https://xpertsstudio.com/mantle-mnt-rises-3-6-amid-broad-crypto-market-rally-top-stories/" title="Mantle (MNT) Rises 3.6% Amid Broad Crypto Market Rally | Top Stories”>crypto market regulation as a direct competitive weapon aimed at preserving the technological lead of the United States over China ;
• A parliamentary deadline set for September 15 : leaders bet on crossing the critical threshold of 60 votes in the Senate during the cloture vote to definitively unblock the law.

Concerns from part of Congress over presidential conflicts of interest risks

Parliamentarians’ response to executive demands was swift, highlighting a deep institutional fracture. Speaking from the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego sharply pushed back against presidential claims. Directly targeting the White House’s refusal to accept binding ethics clauses aimed at Trump clan investments, the lawmaker retorted: “I think unfortunately what the president means by that is fair for him”.

Formally challenging the Executive’s authority over legislative work, Senator Gallego firmly recalled constitutional foundations: “the president accepts certain limitations. It is not up to him to accept. It is the role of Congress, the Senate, then the White House […] the president does not simply decide the level of regulation he gets”.

Aware of parliamentary deadlock and a one-month vacancy in the Senate, financial oversight authorities decided to anticipate the legislative power. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), under Chair Michael Selig, is holding a meeting this Thursday of its Innovation Advisory Committee dedicated to developing direct sectoral rules in the absence of a voted law.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled emergency regulatory proposals this same week offered to Web3 companies. These provide for the creation of a protection zone explicitly shielding certain tokens from strict qualification as “investment contracts”, accompanied by targeted exemptions for digital asset issuances.

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Towards a durable reshaping of institutional and regulatory balances in Washington

This joint acceleration of the SEC and CFTC marks a major tactical break in the history of crypto regulation in the United States. By deciding to unilaterally set temporary rules of the game, the federal agencies seek to compensate for Congress’s political paralysis while providing immediate visibility to investors.

However, this pragmatic bypass of the parliamentary process exposes the sector to an underlying legal vulnerability. The absence of a foundational federal law passed by representatives leaves a perpetual risk of administrative reversal depending on future changes in majority or lawsuits brought by dissatisfied actors.

The outcome of the standoff no longer depends solely on the regulators’ adaptability but on the verdict of the Senate vote on September 15. If the cloture motion fails under the weight of ethical disagreements, the US crypto market will have to cope long-term with fragmented and precarious regulation. Conversely, the adoption of the CLARITY Act would seal the definitive institutionalization of this asset class on American soil, engraving a unified legal framework capable of serving as a global model in the face of Asian ambitions.

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Luc Jose A.

Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d’une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j’ai rejoint l’aventure Cointribune en 2019.
Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l’économie, j’ai pris l’engagement de sensibiliser et d’informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu’elle offre. Je m’efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l’actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

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