Van Hollen Proposes Amendments to CLARITY Act to Ensure Transparency, Stop Trump Corruption

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has put forward eight amendments to the CLARITY Act ahead of the Senate Banking Committee markup of the legislation. The amendments filed by Senator Van Hollen seek to address an array of issues surrounding digital assets and cryptocurrency, including President Trump and his family’s corrupt use of digital assets for their own financial gain. Specifically, one of Senator Van Hollen’s amendments would prohibit any elected officials and their families from issuing digital assets or owning digital asset platforms – a critical addition to this legislation as President Trump and his family rake in billions of dollars through illicit crypto deals with foreign governments and powerful corporate entities. Additional amendments introduced by the Senator include provisions to prevent insider trading, curb illicit finance, ensure transparency, and protect consumers. “As we’ve seen time and again, cryptocurrency and digital assets are rife with opportunity for abuse. That’s why we need to protect consumers, safeguard our financial system, prevent politicians from abusing these assets for their own personal gain, and meaningfully address their role in the illicit finance of criminal activities that jeopardize our security. While the CLARITY Act may seek to provide a regulatory framework, as it currently stands, it not only falls far short of those goals but also risks deregulating existing markets and opening the door to further corruption and abuse. This bill needs significant changes to adequately build safeguards around a growing sector and stamp out its use in corrupt and criminal activities. The amendments I’ve put forward are aimed at doing just that – including by reining in President Trump’s rampant crypto corruption and ensuring that no senior elected official can use cryptocurrency to sell access to the highest levels of our government, as we have seen President Trump do,” said Senator Van Hollen. Senator Van Hollen's Amendments to the CLARITY Act : Prohibits the President, Vice President, members of Congress, senior officials, and their families from owning, promoting, or affiliating with digital asset issuers or platforms, and requires disclosures about officials’ digital asset activities. Full text of the amendment is available here . Prohibits self-dealing by digital asset issuers and insiders, requiring them to act in the best interests of holders of a digital asset. Full text of the amendment is available here . Requires that all investors in digital assets receive information that a digital asset issuer discloses to any one investor or to insiders, creating a level playing field about market-moving information. Full text of the amendment is available here . Prevents insider trading by requiring digital asset issuers and insiders to give up profits made by trading a digital asset over short windows of time. Full text of the amendment is available here . Provides the Federal Reserve with tools to regulate credit and leverage in digital asset markets, helping to limit systemic risk. Full text of the amendment is available here . Prohibits creating a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform either to enable illicit finance or with reckless disregard for illicit finance risks, while authorizing the Department of the Treasury to establish rules to prevent illicit finance in DeFi. Full text of the amendment is available here . Prohibits creating a DeFi platform for the purpose of facilitating sanctions evasion, money laundering, or the financing of terrorism. Full text of the amendment is available here . Prohibits a person from advertising or promoting a digital asset without disclosing that they were paid for the ad or promotion. Full text of the amendment is available here .