Inside the Oval Office meeting: Trump appears ‘bullish’ on Clarity Act as he solicits feedback from crypto, finance CEOs

During a private Oval Office meeting with crypto and traditional finance executives, President Donald Trump appeared "bullish" on passing cryptocurrency legislation, as his administration works to devise a plan to get a bill through Congress as soon as next month.On Wednesday afternoon, following a press conference with technology leaders and federal agency chairs during which Trump said regulators were working to onshore Hyperliquid and called for a “fair version” of the Clarity Act to pass, some executives were invited into the Oval Office.It is not clear who all was in the room, though executives including Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi, ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse were at the press conference. One source told The Block that Trump was "bullish" about getting Clarity done.Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, who was at the Oval Office meeting, said it was productive."The main discussion was really around Clarity and around just soliciting some basic feedback," he said in an interview with The Block, which beforehand he was holding a gold coin, seemingly an Oval Office challenge coin, that he said he had received.Clarity's setbacksOver the past year, the Senate has been trying to advance the Clarity Act — which would regulate the crypto industry for the first time at the federal level. A first procedural vote is scheduled in the Senate on the bill on Sept. 15.But the bill has been hit with one setback after another, including a battle between banks and crypto over the treatment of stablecoin rewards, concerns about illicit finance and the latest big snag — how to address Trump's growing crypto wealth, which has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars linked to World Liberty Financial and his memecoin.In July, Trump agreed to an ethics provision barring public officials, employees and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. The provision would be enforced by the Justice Department, not state attorneys general, and would expire in January 2029. Democrats criticized the language as insufficient.Trump is now weighing a proposal from Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. It would let state attorneys general enforce a ban on public officials and their spouses issuing or sponsoring digital assets.Nazarov said ethics was not discussed during the Oval Office meeting, and said the discussion was around what needed to happen to get the Clarity Act passed."What are the remaining open points? Who are the senators that need to come along? What's the plan for when we get back from recess?" Nazarov said.Nazarov also said that a strategic bitcoin reserve was brought up, but that there were no details on next steps. Trump laid out his plan for a reserve early on in his presidency, funded mainly through bitcoin already owned by the government through criminal or civil forfeitures, and a separate digital asset stockpile.The White House, ICE, Robinhood, Nasdaq and other companies did not respond to a request for comment. Gemini declined to comment.TradFi + cryptoOverall, Nazarov said Wednesday's White House meeting brought together a wide range of industries, from ICE and Nasdaq to Robinhood and Coinbase."I think it's notable that it wasn't just startups and it wasn't just institutions and it wasn't just fintechs," he said. "It was all the different groups together that matter."Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, who said the Oval Office meeting consisted mostly of the company CEOs, so she was not part of the meeting, but said she was struck by the fact that Nasdaq and ICE, as well as new crypto markets, were at the press conference."So I thought it was a good kind of representation of where things are headed, where blockchain technology is really going to kind of be the underpinning of our markets going forward," Mersinger said in an interview.The press conference also shifted the energy around passing the Clarity Act, Mersinger said."It kind of brought additional energy to the industry that I think it needed going into this five-week stretch between when cloture is filed and when we are going to have a vote in the Senate," she said.Following Wednesday's press conference, Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Kim said he was feeling optimistic."What I'm seeing from my vantage point is a lot of important work being done," Kim said in an interview. "People remain committed."Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also voiced optimism in a post on X."This President's incredible commitment to innovation and leadership around digital assets in the US has been profound," Garlinghouse said. The future is bright."Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.