Trump-backed CLARITY Act crypto ethics rule exempted officials' adult children

September 20, 2026 at 02:02 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The final Senate draft of the CLARITY Act would have required senior federal officials holding at least $15,000 in certain digital asset businesses to divest or use a blind trust, but exempted their adult children. The bill failed to advance on Sept. 15. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's family trusts illustrate the gap between official divestment and family economic exposure.

Key Facts

The final Senate draft of the CLARITY Act set a $15,000 equity threshold for senior federal officials in digital asset businesses.
The bill failed to advance on Sept. 15, so none of its provisions became law.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick transferred his Cantor Fitzgerald ownership to trusts benefiting his adult children in October 2025.
Cantor Fitzgerald serves as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer for Tether's regulated US stablecoin.

The CLARITY Act Draft

The final Senate draft of the CLARITY Act would have required senior federal officials holding equity worth at least $15,000 in certain digital asset businesses to sell that interest or place it into a qualified blind trust. Spouses faced the same restriction, but adult children were explicitly excluded. The bill failed to advance on Sept. 15, so none of these provisions became law. The draft targeted equity interests in businesses whose largest revenue source in any of the preceding three calendar years was issuing or sponsoring digital assets, excluding tokenized traditional assets.

Lutnick Family Trusts

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spent decades running Cantor Fitzgerald before joining President Donald Trump's Cabinet in February 2025. Cantor Fitzgerald holds billions of dollars of Treasuries for Tether and remains involved in its US business as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. After the October 2025 transfer, SEC filings show Howard Lutnick no longer held beneficial ownership of the securities tied to that control structure. His son Brandon now runs the company and controls the trusts holding the voting interests.