White House adviser Patrick Witt said it was possible the Clarity Act could become law by July 4, while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pushed for an ethics provision in the Market Structure bill. Consensus Miami 2026 ended with a fiery debate over the role of prediction markets, and much more happened at our first conference in the Sunshine State.
CoinDesk also released the results of a survey it commissioned of 1,000 registered voters on their views on crypto ahead of the 2026 election.
PS: I will be at the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum next week. We’ll see you if you’re there.
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The story
White House President’s Council on Digital Assets Executive Director Patrick Witt told the Consensus Miami audience this week that he believes it’s possible that President Donald Trump will sign the Clarity Act by July 4. The timeline would require a markup this month (which seems very possible), four weeks for the Senate to merge the banking and agriculture bills (technically possible), a few weeks for reconciliation with the House (also technically possible) and the House vote (this will depend on the House) and finally, the part where the president signs the bill.
Beyond Witt, we heard from various industry participants and policymakers at Consensus Miami. Catch up below.
Why it matters
Look, if you’ve been reading this newsletter for more than a few weeks, you know that the Clarity Act has taken center stage in recent months. Maybe it will happen and we can move on. Maybe not. But there seems to be more momentum today than there has been in weeks, and so we will see – I imagine very soon – what that means.
Break it down
This year, the consensus led to a number of other sessions with lawmakers, policymakers, and advocates who weighed in on everything from the needs of the Clarity Act (ethics provisions, according to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand) to whether or not prediction markets play a role (we didn’t reach a conclusion but it was a great debate!).
Some highlights:
CoinDesk also released the results of a survey of registered voters it commissioned April 21-27. We found that while voters generally don’t care about crypto until the 2026 midterm elections when they are facing other issues such as the economy and health care. This is probably no surprise to anyone.
Voters overwhelmingly said they did not want top government officials to have ties to crypto business interests. A majority said they did not feel comfortable with President Donald Trump’s administration overseeing crypto (although only 17% of voters said they were aware that he and his family co-founded World Liberty Financial). Voters also overwhelmingly favored banks’ crypto projects when asked which was most likely to bring them financial services.
You can read our articles on this data below:
Crypto is at the bottom of US voters’ priorities as elections approach, CoinDesk survey finds
US Voters Don’t Trust Trump Administration to Oversee Crypto Sector, CoinDesk Poll Finds
Americans Still Prefer Banks Over Cryptocurrencies for Accessing Finance, CoinDesk Survey Shows
THURSDAY
- 2:30 p.m. UTC (10:30 a.m. ET) The Senate Banking Committee plans to hold a markup hearing to advance the Clarity Act.
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other comments you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@PK Press Club.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group chat on Telegram.
See you next week!
