Anthony Scaramucci, chairman of SALT and founder of SkyBridge Capital, said President Donald Trump’s memecoin launches were the singular reason Democrats withdrew support from the CLARITY Act, converting crypto market-structure negotiations into a broader ethics dispute. Speaking at SALT London, Scaramucci said the token launches shortly before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration damaged bipartisan momentum and triggered the political backlash that stalled the legislation.
The bill failed to advance in the Senate on September 15, receiving 49 votes in favor and 50 against, short of the 60 votes needed to move toward debate. Scaramucci described the lost support as an attribution rather than a proven causal finding for every senator’s vote, but said the ethics debate around Trump-linked crypto interests had complicated negotiations. He also argued that responsibility was shared: some lawmakers wanted stronger ethics safeguards, while the White House resisted provisions with greater enforcement power.
TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said the election results could weaken crypto industry influence in Washington and that he does not expect progress on the CLARITY Act over the next two years. “We did not think Clarity could advance over the next two years. This makes us more confident in our prediction,” Seiberg said. Senator Elizabeth Warren and returning lawmaker Sherrod Brown are expected to push for tougher oversight, while investigations into President Donald Trump’s crypto dealings could take priority over market-structure legislation.
Despite the setback, Scaramucci remained optimistic about the broader direction of U.S. crypto regulation. He said the SEC’s approach under Chair Paul Atkins could help tokenization reach “escape velocity,” meaning adoption could become difficult for a future administration to reverse or slow. He added that it was too early to know whether that threshold would be reached before the next administration.
