Patrick Witt Exits White House Crypto Role as CLARITY Act Stalls

The White House crypto council has no staff left. On Wednesday 14 October, the White House confirmed that Patrick Witt's temporary posting as the council's executive director had ended. No successor has been named, and the White House has not answered questions about who might take the job.

The exit lands one month after the Senate blocked the CLARITY Act, the bill that would set federal rules for US crypto markets. Witt had been the administration's point person on that legislation, coordinating Senate negotiations after the House passed its version more than a year ago. He was also its main public voice on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the federal store of seized Bitcoin that Trump created by executive order in March 2025.

A Council That Has Empty Chairs

The President's Advisory Committee on Digital Assets emptied out in stages. Bo Hines, its first leader, returned to the private sector, and Witt took over in August 2025. Deputy director Harry Jung left at the end of July, which made Witt the only remaining staffer. David Sacks, Trump's AI and crypto czar, had already gone in March after reaching the 130-day limit for special government employees, and no replacement was named for him either.

Witt was on loan from the Department of Defense. He postponed his Georgia Army National Guard service earlier this year and is expected to resume it, which is what the end of his detail now clears the way for. The White House's message was brief:

The White House appreciates his service to the Trump administration and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

CLARITY Act Falls Short of 60 Votes

On 15 September a key Senate vote on the CLARITY Act fell short of the 60 votes it needed. Two disputes did the damage: how to treat stablecoin rewards, where banks and crypto firms disagree, and how to handle conflicts of interest arising from President Trump's own crypto holdings. Democrats argued that enforcement action against the president would be unenforceable, because the Justice Department rather than individual states decides on enforcement.

DLA Piper says Congress may not take the bill up again before January 2027, and some experts do not expect it to move in the lame duck session between the November midterm elections and the swearing in of the next session in January.

SEC and CFTC Write the Rules Instead

The rulemaking does not stop while the bill sits still. The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are writing crypto rules on their own, and as of Tuesday 13 October the White House had not announced any nominations for either agency. French Hill has already made the case that agency-level rules fall short of what the CLARITY Act would settle.

What would change the picture is small and specific: a named executive director, a decision to fold the council's work into another office, or a slot for the bill in the lame duck session. None of those has happened yet.