CLARITY Act's biggest sticking point is conflict-of-interest clause, Solana Policy Institute CEO says

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, said the biggest current flashpoint in the CLARITY Act is what he called the "ethics provision," speaking at a policy symposium titled "Toward Digital G2 Status for South Korea" held at Hashed Lounge in Gangnam, Seoul, on Tuesday.

"President Donald Trump and his family have been very actively involved in the digital asset space," Whitehouse-Levine said, citing Trump's memecoin and World Liberty Financial. "There is a widespread perception that this creates significant conflicts of interest and potential for corruption," he added. He noted that the Democratic Party has said it will not support the bill unless an ethics clause is included.

The version of the CLARITY Act that cleared the Senate Banking Committee does not include the conflict-of-interest prevention provision the Democratic Party has demanded. However, proposals that would restrict executive branch officials, including the president, from issuing or promoting cryptocurrency tokens — or allow state attorneys general to press the Justice Department to enforce related regulations — have reportedly been placed on the negotiating table. "If an ethics provision of some kind is not included, the bill will not pass," Whitehouse-Levine said.

Chris Montagano, chief legal officer of Orca, a Solana-based decentralized exchange, said provisions once called "developer protections" or "DeFi protections" in the bill that passed the House last summer are being steadily weakened in the draft currently under discussion. "If those protections are not clearly written into the statutory text, there is room for future administrations to interpret them as they see fit," he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said at the symposium that the Digital Asset Basic Act would pass in the second half of the National Assembly session after further refinement. Describing the current moment as a legislative "golden hour," Ahn said the party would seek to build as broad a cross-party consensus as possible, but added that if that proved difficult, it could move forward on its own given its majority in the Assembly.