Scaramucci blames Trump’s memecoin for the CLARITY Act’s Senate collapse
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The CLARITY Act's failure highlights the complex interplay between political interests and regulatory efforts in the evolving crypto landscape.
Photo: Vitaliy Haiduk / Pexels
The SkyBridge founder says the TRUMP token was the main reason Democrats walked away from crypto market structure legislation
Thu 5 Nov 2026 · 08:08 EST · 3 min read
In Politics
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Anthony Scaramucci has found a culprit for the stalled CLARITY Act, and it has a ticker symbol.
Speaking at the SALT London conference in early November 2026, the SkyBridge Capital founder said President Donald Trump’s Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin was the “singular reason” the crypto market structure bill failed in the Senate. He also went further on X, asking what Russian President Vladimir Putin has on Trump.
Scaramucci is a former Trump communications director who has become one of the president’s loudest critics.
A token launch, a failed vote
The timeline matters here. Trump launched the TRUMP memecoin just before his January 2025 inauguration.
Roughly twenty months later, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act hit a wall. A procedural vote on September 15, 2026 came in at 49 to 50 against. The bill needed 60 votes to clear cloture, which is the Senate’s mechanism for ending debate and moving to a final vote.
Scaramucci’s argument is that the memecoin poisoned the bipartisan well. By his account, Democrats had shown a willingness to back digital asset rules. Then the president launched a personal token and many of them backed away.
He described Trump’s crypto ventures as a direct blow to public trust in the digital asset industry.
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The numbers behind the backlash
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen estimates investors face $4.7 billion in unrealized losses tied to Trump-linked digital assets. Of that, $3.2 billion is associated specifically with the TRUMP memecoin.
On the other side of the ledger, Trump reportedly earned $635 million in 2025 through licensing fees connected to these ventures. That contrast is the political problem in one sentence. Retail buyers are underwater while the brand behind the tokens collected licensing revenue.
Ethics language became the sticking point
The CLARITY Act was never supposed to be about the president’s portfolio. Its core purpose is to draw clearer lines between digital assets that count as securities and those that count as commodities.
But the bill also includes ethics provisions designed to restrict federal officials from holding significant financial interests in digital assets. According to Scaramucci, those provisions contributed to the bill’s inability to advance.
The conflict is easy to see. Lawmakers worried about presidential self-dealing wanted ethics rules with teeth. Any rule strong enough to satisfy them would run straight into the president’s own crypto holdings and business interests.
What comes next for crypto legislation
The bill isn’t dead, but it is on life support with a deadline. Advocates are now negotiating ethics language in hopes of getting the legislation moving before the midterm elections.
The 49 to 50 tally shows the support is close to even, but cloture requires 60, and that gap is far wider than one vote.
Scaramucci, for his part, appears unlikely to soften his tone. Between blaming the memecoin for the bill’s failure and publicly questioning Trump’s relationship with Putin, he has made clear he sees the president as the obstacle rather than the champion.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
