Why Trump’s Crypto Advisor Is Optimistic on the CLARITY Act Passing

Despite the CLARITY Act missing its deadline for a vote ahead of the Senate's August recess, President Trump's highest advisor on crypto is still optimistic it can get passed.

In fact, he's more optimistic than ever.

"I would say I'm as bullish, as optimistic as I've been throughout," Patrick Witt, the executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, told Coinage at the SALT Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.

The next major test is now scheduled for September 15, when lawmakers are expected to take an initial vote that could determine whether CLARITY still has a path forward before the midterms. According to Witt, the delay in the vote may ultimately help.

"Nothing motivates like a deadline," he said, pointing to previous bursts of progress ahead of committee markups and the push to get a procedural vote before the August recess. "The fact that we have the September vote now on the books, I'm confident that those… two to three weeks before that vote, there's going to be a lot of breakthroughs that happen — or not."

That may not sound like overwhelming confidence. But in Washington, getting a sprawling financial regulation bill down to a finite set of unresolved fights counts as progress.