White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt is defending the CLARITY Act as lawmakers try to move the U.S. crypto market-structure bill through Congress before the 2026 midterm elections tighten the legislative calendar.
Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, called the bill “the most pro-law enforcement crypto bill ever considered by Congress” in a public statement as the White House and crypto-policy supporters push back against claims that the bill weakens oversight.
The defense follows a broader law-enforcement and national-security push around the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. A Blockchain Association letter signed by 160 former national security, intelligence and law enforcement professionals argued that clearer market-structure rules would bring more digital asset activity under U.S. oversight instead of leaving it offshore.
That argument is now central to the bill’s survival. Supporters are no longer pitching the CLARITY Act only as a pro-innovation framework. They are framing it as a compliance and enforcement upgrade.
Bill Adds AML, Sanctions And Seizure Tools
The Senate Banking Committee’s current fact sheet says the CLARITY Act applies Bank Secrecy Act rules to digital asset brokers, dealers and exchanges. That would require anti-money-laundering programs, customer identification, suspicious activity monitoring and sanctions compliance for covered intermediaries.
The bill also creates a targeted safe harbor allowing digital asset service providers and permitted stablecoin issuers to temporarily pause suspicious transactions at law enforcement request. Other provisions cover digital asset kiosk registration, fraud warnings, holding periods, withdrawal limits, risk-management standards, FinCEN funding, information sharing between the private sector and federal law enforcement, and studies on mixers, tumblers, cybersecurity and national security risks.
That enforcement language matters because the CLARITY Act still faces criticism from Democrats and bank-aligned groups over illicit finance, DeFi treatment, stablecoin rewards and ethics restrictions. Earlier CryptoAdventure coverage tracked how the CLARITY Act cleared Senate Banking in a 15-9 vote, but that committee result did not guarantee a full Senate path.
Lummis Says The Window Could Close Until 2030
Senator Cynthia Lummis is now raising the stakes. She warned that this may be Congress’ last real chance to pass the CLARITY Act until at least 2030, arguing that lawmakers cannot afford to surrender America’s financial future.
That warning reflects the political calendar. The bill has already moved onto the Senate calendar, but floor time, bipartisan vote math and unresolved amendments remain live risks. If the midterms change control of either chamber or reset committee priorities, crypto market-structure legislation could be pushed into a new Congress with a different coalition and a much colder starting point.
The policy fight is also getting more personal. Jamie Dimon has attacked the CLARITY Act as banks continue fighting stablecoin reward language, while Coinbase and other crypto firms argue that activity-based rewards should survive inside the final compromise. That bank-crypto conflict has already become one of the hardest parts of the Senate floor fight.
The next test is whether Witt’s law-enforcement framing can help supporters win enough senators who are worried about money laundering, sanctions evasion and offshore crypto markets. If the bill passes, U.S. crypto firms would finally get a clearer federal rulebook. If it fails, Lummis’ 2030 warning turns the CLARITY Act from a near-term policy fight into a four-year missed window.
