A group of senior U.S. crypto executives has met Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss the CLARITY Act, including unresolved ethics provisions and ways the White House could help secure bipartisan support for the stalled market structure bill.
Summary
- Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken and a16z executives met Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick before Trump’s White House remarks.
- The meeting focused on the CLARITY Act, U.S. jobs and bringing crypto businesses back onshore.
- Ethics provisions remain among the obstacles to securing bipartisan support for the bill.
- The executives discussed how the White House could help lawmakers reach an agreement.
Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X on Wednesday that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, a16z crypto founder and managing partner Chris Dixon, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Kraken co-founder Arjun Sethi held the meeting with Lutnick before President Donald Trump addressed crypto industry leaders at the White House.
The discussion centered on passing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the economic case the executives see for establishing federal rules for digital assets, according to Terrett, who cited two sources familiar with the meeting.
Participants discussed what the legislation could mean for U.S. employment and economic growth, while also making the case that clearer federal rules could encourage crypto founders and companies to build or return to the United States, the sources told Terrett.
The executives also raised the obstacles still holding up the bill, including negotiations over ethics provisions. According to Terrett, the group discussed how the White House could help lawmakers find a route toward a bipartisan agreement.
Crypto executives pressed the economic case for the CLARITY Act
The meeting placed several of the crypto industry’s most prominent executives directly with Lutnick as the administration continued pressing Congress to complete legislation governing the U.S. digital asset market.
Armstrong has been closely involved in negotiations over the bill for months. Coinbase initially opposed an earlier Senate version before returning to support the legislation after lawmakers negotiated changes to provisions covering stablecoin rewards.
Ahead of a Senate Banking Committee markup in May, Armstrong backed the revised bill and said it had reached its strongest position after months of negotiations between lawmakers, banks and crypto companies.
The compromise allowed rewards tied to customer activity while restricting passive payments for simply holding stablecoins, an issue that had become one of the main points of disagreement between crypto companies and the banking industry.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott released a 309-page substitute text on May 12. Five major U.S. banking groups opposed the stablecoin compromise before the committee markup, arguing that the restrictions did not go far enough.
Two days later, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the legislation in a 15-9 bipartisan vote. The bill subsequently moved onto the Senate Legislative Calendar, making it eligible for consideration by the full chamber once Senate leaders scheduled debate.
The legislative process still required lawmakers to reconcile work from the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees, while disagreements over ethics, decentralized finance, illicit finance controls and other provisions continued.
Ethics provisions remain a hurdle to bipartisan support
Ethics rules have become one of the most difficult parts of the negotiations as lawmakers seek enough support to move the legislation through the Senate.
The issue had already reached the White House before Wednesday’s meeting with industry executives. President Trump met Republican senators in July as lawmakers tried to settle outstanding disagreements, including provisions covering conflicts of interest involving government officials.
Following that meeting, the CLARITY Act remained without revised text as Democratic opposition continued to focus partly on ethics and consumer protection provisions.
The disagreement is especially important in the Senate, where Republicans cannot move the legislation alone if Democratic votes are required to overcome the chamber’s procedural threshold.
Negotiations earlier in the summer had already identified conflict-of-interest language as one of the remaining risks to passage. Stablecoin rewards, illicit finance rules and protections for blockchain developers also formed part of the discussions as lawmakers worked through the Senate version.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden separately pressed Senate leaders in July to preserve Section 604, known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which would protect certain non-custodial blockchain developers from being treated as money transmitters when they do not control customer funds.
At the time, lawmakers were still negotiating developer protections alongside ethics provisions and other unresolved parts of the market structure package.
Terrett’s report indicates ethics remained on the agenda when Armstrong, Dixon, Garlinghouse and Sethi met Lutnick this week. The executives also discussed what role the administration could play in finding terms capable of attracting lawmakers from both parties.
White House has taken a direct role in CLARITY Act talks
The Trump administration has spent months working directly with lawmakers and industry groups as the CLARITY Act moved through the Senate.
In June, White House officials convened lawmakers, congressional staff and law enforcement representatives to discuss the legislation, including crypto crime enforcement and protections for blockchain software developers.
At that stage, Republicans needed Democratic support to move the legislation through the Senate, making negotiations with lawmakers outside the party important to the bill’s path forward.
Trump later increased his direct involvement. During a July White House meeting with Republican senators, lawmakers discussed the remaining work needed to advance the bill as Senate leaders sought to secure enough votes.
The legislation subsequently ran into another timing problem. An earlier July 4 target passed without enactment, after which lawmakers faced an August deadline as Senate staff continued working to combine the Banking and Agriculture versions.
At the time, unresolved ethics provisions, anti-money laundering questions and Senate vote math remained among the main obstacles.
The bill had already cleared an important procedural hurdle by reaching the Senate calendar, but placement on the calendar did not itself guarantee a floor vote. Senate leadership still needed to allocate time for debate while negotiators worked through provisions capable of keeping enough bipartisan support together.
Coinbase returned to support after earlier CLARITY Act dispute
Armstrong’s presence at the Lutnick meeting also followed a months-long change in Coinbase’s position on the legislation.
The Coinbase chief withdrew support for an earlier version in January, raising concerns about stablecoin rewards, tokenized equities and rules affecting decentralized finance. The company later resumed negotiations with banks and policymakers as lawmakers worked on revised language.
By April, Armstrong had renewed his support after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Congress to advance the legislation. Negotiations then produced the stablecoin rewards compromise that helped move the bill toward the May committee vote.
Armstrong subsequently argued that banks had received key concessions while the legislation preserved important priorities for crypto companies. Banking groups continued to challenge the compromise, leaving the stablecoin issue among the areas lawmakers had to manage while building support.
Industry lobbying also increased during the legislative fight. Coinbase disclosed $1.07 million in federal lobbying spending during the first quarter of 2026, with the CLARITY Act, implementation of stablecoin legislation and digital asset tax policy among the issues covered by its lobbying filings.
By June, the bill had entered the Senate queue after clearing the Banking Committee, while lawmakers continued trying to merge committee proposals and resolve disputes before floor consideration.
Wednesday’s discussion with Lutnick brought Armstrong into the same room as Garlinghouse, Dixon and Sethi before the executives joined the White House event, with Terrett’s sources saying the private meeting covered jobs, economic growth, bringing crypto businesses back to the United States and the remaining ethics questions surrounding passage.
