Elizabeth Warren to Criticize Clarity Act as Enabling Trump Crypto Profits

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren will rip the cryptocurrency market structure bill known as the Clarity Act in a Monday night speech, as the Senate prepares for an all-important preliminary vote on the legislation Tuesday afternoon.

Warren, D-Mass., whose prepared remarks were shared first with CNBC, will call a new ethics provision in the measure that's been blessed by President Donald Trump a "weak fig leaf that will do nothing to stop him from making his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits."

Republicans leading the Clarity Act effort hope some Democrats will join them in supporting the bill, which would lay out rules of the road for the crypto industry. At least 60 affirmative votes are needed for the bill to advance past Tuesday's vote.

GOP leaders of the crypto bill released updated legislative language late Sunday that they said includes new ethics provisions Democrats sought. The new provision would allow state attorneys general to enforce the ethics provision, which would bar the U.S. president and other senior government officials from issuing digital assets. The bill's ethics language has remained one of the primary hurdles in the Clarity Act debate.

Warren, however, will argue the proposed new ethics rules are a smoke screen.

"First, it makes sure the law could never be enforced against Donald Trump because it gives his political appointees the power to turn off enforcement of these ethics provisions," Warren will say, according to the prepared remarks. "Second, it contains major loopholes designed to allow President Trump to keep earning billions of dollars from his crypto businesses, including World Liberty Financial … and his new bank. Yes you heard that right."

Warren will also ask for unanimous consent to pass a bill dubbed the "Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act," which would prohibit a range of banking applications from being approved for the president, vice president, a spouse or child of the president or vice president, a member of Congress, a presidentially appointed executive branch official or a special government employee. It would also require the termination of any such charters issued since Jan. 20, 2025. The measure is unlikely to gain support in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Trump's family crypto venture World Liberty Financial, in which the president is listed as a co-founder emeritus along with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's sons and Witkoff's son are listed as co-founders, acquired a bank charter earlier this year.

Warren will say the bank charter would "supercharge the growth of USD1, increase its interconnectedness with the U.S. financial system, and, as a result, drive even greater profits for President Trump and his family."

She will also warn that passing the Clarity Act could have a similar effect, arguing that Senate Republicans are "intent on furthering President Trump's corruption."

"Look no further than the Senate's first order of business after August recess. Is it a bill to make life more affordable for American families? No. Is it a bill to end Trump's dangerous War in Iran? No. It's a bill that would juice the value of President Trump's crypto empire, and reward the crypto billionaires who have facilitated his corruption," she will say. "As if the glaring loopholes in the latest ethics provision weren't enough, it doesn't even apply to Donald Trump's new bank."

— CNBC's Luke Fountain contributed to this report.