Senate crypto bill stalls as Tillis demands limits on White House crypto activity

Senator Thom Tillis has threatened to oppose the Senate’s crypto market structure bill unless ethics restrictions on White House crypto activity are added.

According to Politico, Tillis said he would withdraw support for the legislation if it leaves the Senate without provisions limiting how federal officials, including those in the executive branch, engage with digital assets. 

“There has to be ethics language in the bill before it leaves the Senate, or I’ll go from one of the people working on negotiating it to voting against it,” he told the publication.

Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego tied the bill’s progress to bipartisan agreement on the same issue, telling Politico that “there is no final bill — there is no final movement — unless there is a bipartisan agreement when it comes to the ethics provision.”

A senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, Tillis holds influence over whether the proposal advances, especially as the chamber works to reconcile its version with the House-passed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which cleared in July and splits oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ethics clause emerges as central hurdle

Debate over conflicts of interest has intensified as Democratic lawmakers scrutinise crypto ventures linked to former President Donald Trump and his family, arguing that legislation should include safeguards against federal officials sponsoring or promoting digital assets.

Senator Adam Schiff told Politico that negotiations have recently gained traction after months of limited progress. 

“We’re making progress,” he said, adding that discussions are now narrowing differences as other sections of the bill take shape.

Earlier in the year, Schiff proposed a ban covering “sponsoring, endorsing or issuing digital assets” for all federal employees, including the president, citing concerns over memecoins and NFTs associated with Trump’s name and likeness.

Delays extend beyond ethics dispute

Parallel disagreements over stablecoin yield provisions have also slowed the bill’s path, with Tillis working alongside Senator Angela Alsobrooks to draft compromise language addressing whether firms can offer interest on idle stablecoin balances.

As reported by Politico in April, banking groups warned that yield-bearing stablecoins could draw deposits away from traditional institutions, while crypto firms, including Coinbase, argued that restricting such incentives would limit market growth and innovation.

Even as talks continue, the bill still faces committee hurdles before reaching a full Senate vote, leaving both ethics provisions and stablecoin rules unresolved at a stage where bipartisan alignment remains necessary for progress.