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Bipartisan Talks on US CLARITY Act End Without Deal, Raising Prospect of GOP-Only Push

Source

Suehyeon Lee

Summary

Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats ended without an agreement ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of the CLARITY Act.
Democratic lawmakers demanded the inclusion of a crypto conflict-of-interest provision involving the president’s family as a condition for supporting the bill.
Democratic concerns over the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) provision, which would exempt non-custodial software developers from money transmitter regulations, and last-minute differences proved to be the decisive reason the talks collapsed.

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Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats ended without an agreement ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of the CLARITY Act.

Eleanor Terrett, host of CryptoAmerica, reported on May 13 that talks among a small group of senators to secure Democratic support failed to produce a final deal.

The main points of contention were provisions addressing potential crypto conflicts of interest involving President Donald Trump’s family and language tied to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, or BRCA.

Democratic senators including Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego demanded that the bill include safeguards to prevent crypto-related conflicts of interest involving the president’s family as a condition for their support.

Some Democrats also voiced concerns about the BRCA provision. The language would exempt non-custodial software developers that do not directly hold user funds from money transmitter regulations.

Terrett said negotiations over the conflict-of-interest issue had made significant progress. But last-minute differences over the BRCA amendment ultimately sank the talks.