Trump Strongly Advocates for Crypto Bill, but Legislative Prospects Clouded by His Own Business Interests

May 28th — U.S. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce he’ll lead efforts to build a “forward-looking” digital asset market structure. He slammed former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and what he called the “anti-crypto army” for pushing Bitcoin, crypto perpetual contracts, and crypto innovation overseas. Trump vowed, “Under my leadership, we will enshrine a set of ‘forward-looking’ digital asset market regulations into law that crypto haters cannot overturn. The new frontier of finance is being built in the United States, and ‘Trump’ will never disappoint the crypto industry!” At the time of his remarks, the Clarity Act — a bill designed to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets — cleared the Senate Banking Committee in early May after months of delays tied to debates over stablecoin rules and other sticking points. However, analysts note the legislation still faces major hurdles before becoming law. Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer explained that the bill needs to be merged with related market structure legislation from the House Agriculture Committee and secure 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, meaning it will require significant Democratic support to move forward. Recent controversies surrounding Trump’s own cryptocurrency project and potential conflicts of interest have shifted the political calculus, though. TD Cowen analysts argue Democrats now face growing pressure to back a crypto bill that includes standards addressing presidential conflicts of interest. As a result, the bill is unlikely to pass this year. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego has explicitly warned he will vote against the full Senate version of the bill if those conflict-of-interest concerns aren’t addressed.