The story

The crypto industry and banking sector are mounting a final lobbying push in senators' home states ahead of a September 15 procedural vote on the CLARITY Act. The industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for the bill, which would define which tokens qualify as securities versus commodities and which regulators oversee them. Democrats and some Republicans warn the bill has insufficient safeguards and could destabilize the banking system, and analysts say its chances look slim.

Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group backed by Coinbase, says its 3 million advocates have placed op-eds in local newspapers in Oklahoma, Kentucky and Kansas, hosted events in Iowa and Michigan, and called or emailed members of Congress nearly 50,000 times during August. The Cedar Innovation Foundation is launching a seven-figure cable advertising campaign, including one ad attacking banks for enjoying a profit feeding frenzy while trying to block competition.

Republican senators say the bill is likely to fail unless the White House negotiates on ethics restrictions tied to President Donald Trump and his family's crypto ventures. Senator Thom Tillis said if there is no interest in the White House in trying to bridge the gap on the ethics language, it is going to fail. Reuters reported in March that talks had hit an impasse over a Democratic push to ban elected officials from profiting from crypto ventures, a provision aimed at the Trump family's World Liberty Financial business. Coinbase policy chief Faryar Shirzad said the White House has already accepted restrictions applying specifically to the president, but Democrats may demand additional concessions. Crypto companies are anxious to pass the bill this year because polls favor Democrats to retake the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections.