After abruptly pulling their assist from what would have been the Senate’s first stablecoin regulatory invoice, Senate Democrats introduced Tuesday that they’d introduce a brand new invoice that may forestall federal officers and their households from issuing digital belongings – a invoice directed at Donald Trump and his household’s present stablecoin and meme coin holdings.
“Currently, individuals who want to domesticate affect with the president can enrich him personally by shopping for cryptocurrency he owns or controls,” mentioned Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who launched the invoice to the Senate ground, in a press launch. “This is a profoundly corrupt scheme. It endangers our nationwide safety and erodes public belief in authorities. Let’s finish this corruption instantly.”
The End Crypto Corruption Act is available in response to considerations contained in the Democratic celebration that the GENIUS Act, which beforehand had sturdy bipartisan assist, was insufficient at stopping corruption. Though the Senate Banking Committee handed the invoice in March with a bipartisan vote, two subsequent developments reportedly pushed the Democrats to alter course. First, a New York Times report final week revealed that the Trump household may doubtlessly earn $2 billion from a stablecoin transaction with a Dubai-based funding agency underneath the present regulatory framework. Second, Trump introduced a contest in April whereby the highest holders of his meme coin would win a non-public dinner with the president, and the highest 25 holders would win a further guided tour of the White House. According to a report from Chainalysis, the meme coin’s issuers, Official Trump, have earned $320 million from buying and selling charges from the competition alone.
Though they admitted that there’s not a lot they’ll do to cease the president proper now (see: no legal guidelines), Senate Republicans additionally expressed skepticism over the $TRUMP contest to NBC, and at the least one staunch Trump ally, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, supplied to accomplice with the Democrats on efforts to control lawmakers holding digital belongings. “Even what could look like ‘cringey’ with regard to meme cash, it’s authorized, and what we have to do is have a regulatory framework that makes this extra clear, so we don’t have this Wild West state of affairs,” she instructed NBC.
