President Trump Warns Banking Sector Against Halting CLARITY Act

President Donald Trump is warning bankers not to hold up new cryptocurrency legislation.

Speaking during a crypto sector event at his Mar-a-Lago resort Saturday (April 25), Trump copied the stance his advisers had adopted in promoting the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, CoinDesk reported.

The White House won’t allow banks to detail the legislation, Trump said at the event, which had billed as “the most exclusive conference in the world,” drawing guests ranging from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino to boxer Mike Tyson.

The audience also included some of the top buyers of Trump’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency, although the token’s value has fallen more than 95% from its record high last year. The price of the coin reportedly fell even further in the wake of an attempted attack on the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday evening.

As CoinDesk noted, banking groups have in recent months won over some senators to their view that new regulations allowing for stablecoin rewards programs could lead to deposit flights.

This concern has helped to stall progress on the CLARITY Act, though recent indications show it could still be a part of this year’s legislative calendar. Trump, the report added, has said the bill is a priority.

Trump’s comments came two days after a letter from more than 100 crypto companies to the Senate Banking Committee calling for movement on the CLARITY Act.

The act is meant to establish “durable U.S. rules” required to support the next frontier of financial infrastructure, such as tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges, as PYMNTS wrote recently.

“A key component of the act is establishing a federal distinction between digital commodities” under CFTC oversight and securities regulated by the SEC, “which would reduce the ambiguity currently facing exchanges and banks,” that report added.

While the bill made it through the House of Representatives in 2025, it has stalled in the Senate amid disagreements between traditional financial institutions and crypto companies, particularly around rules for stablecoin interest payments.

The White House has said that prohibiting those yield rewards would only raise traditional lending by 0.02%, with a little more than three quarters of it coming from larger lenders and the remainder from community banks.

Those figures run counter to findings last year from industry group Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), which said community banks could sacrifice $1.3 trillion in deposits and $850 billion in loans if stablecoin rewards were permitted.

“What is unfolding is not the end of crypto’s regulatory journey, but the end of its beginning. The U.S. is moving from a reactive posture to a proactive framework that seeks to harness innovation while maintaining financial stability,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.