Senators File Clarity Act Amendments on DeFi, Trump Family, and Jeffrey Epstein

With less than 24 hours to go until the Senate Banking Committee’s landmark vote on the Clarity Act, participating senators have introduced dozens of amendments to the major crypto bill.

In regards to crypto’s potential impact on the broader economy, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced an amendment that would prohibit the U.S. government from ever providing crypto businesses financial assistance to prevent “failure or bankruptcy.”

Another amendment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would prevent the U.S. government from approving banking-related applications for institutions directly tied to the president, the vice president, members of Congress, and their immediate families. It would also prohibit such individuals from controlling or owning banks.

In a similar vein, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) has introduced an amendment requiring the re-establishment of an inter-agency National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which would, among other things, investigate crypto ventures with direct ties to the president and their immediate family.

One such amendment would require businesses deriving significant revenue from DeFi platforms to institute proactive anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs. Another would grant the U.S. government clear jurisdiction to sanction any transactions involving U.S.-dollar backed stablecoins.

Another amendment from Elizabeth Warren would allow the U.S. government to blacklist crypto platforms that facilitate more than one illicit transaction. An additional amendment from Jack Reed, sure to attract the crypto industry’s ire, would entirely eliminate the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), a key provision of the Clarity Act exempting DeFi from most new regulations and broadly protecting crypto software developers from criminal prosecution.

Senate Republicans have also introduced amendments on the subject of illicit crypto activity and privacy. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced language that would create a permanent Digital Asset Cyber Innovation Center at the Treasury Department, designed to counter crypto-related threats from state actors including North Korea and Iran.

Then there are the many amendments that have absolutely nothing to do with crypto. 

One, from Bill Hagerty, would cut regulations on housing development in certain approved areas of the country. Another, from Elizabeth Warren, would require federal banking regulators to release all information in their possession related to Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators within 90 days of the Clarity Act’s passage.

“If you’ve made community banks angry about stablecoin yield, this is a nice little treat on the side,” one D.C. insider told Decrypt.