The White House’s senior cryptocurrency adviser has said he feels “very good” about the Senate’s first vote on legislation that would establish federal regulation of the industry.
Bo Hines Witt said the administration had worked to address the concerns raised during negotiations over the Clarity Act, speaking at a Solana Policy Institute summit in Washington on Monday.
“Whether or not we get 60 votes is going to be a political calculation, not a policy calculation because this truly is a bipartisan bill that is worthy of support,” Witt said.
The Senate is due to hold an initial procedural vote on Tuesday. The bill requires 60 votes to move forward.
Senate Republicans published their latest version of the legislation less than a day before Witt’s comments. The changes covered stablecoin rewards, protections for software developers and the handling of President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
Those revisions have prompted criticism from sections of the cryptocurrency industry, banks and lawmakers. Witt described the latest version as the “best and final offer”.
Trump’s growing involvement in cryptocurrency has been one of the main obstacles in the negotiations. The revised bill would give state attorneys general a role in enforcing conflict-of-interest rules applying to public officials.
However, Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats have objected to the fact that state prosecutors would not be able to bring charges against public officials, including the president.
Witt said Trump had “blessed” the latest ethics wording. He also rejected criticism that the provision prevented state attorneys general from suing Trump and other public officials.
“With this ethics provision in here, I wouldn’t want to be a Democrat that voted against these strong ethics provisions,” Witt said.
The bill’s section known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act has also been amended. References to a federal criminal statute that would have protected certain non-controlling software developers were removed.
The change has disappointed some in the sector. TheCoinCenter said the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act represented progress overall but “stops short of resolving the essential criminal law issue” currently before the courts.
Witt said on Monday that the provision remained “robust”. He attributed the changes to Senate negotiations, particularly discussions with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada.
If the Clarity Act fails to pass the Senate, Witt suggested that regulatory bodies including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission could take action.
“The agencies already have tremendous rulemaking authority,” Witt said.
