Senate Democrats are calling for changes to cryptocurrency laws pending in Congress, partly responding to growing evidence that Trumps are using their ties and the power of President Trump to benefit from crypto transactions.
It intensified late last week after Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer told his colleagues that he shouldn't commit to a vote on the so-called Genius Act, a bill backed by the crypto industry.
For months, the bill appeared to be gliding towards passage with support from both parties, with a procedural vote scheduled for this week. However, at the meeting, Senate Democrats raised concerns that the law would directly benefit the Trump family's crypto business, citing a report by the New York Times.
Amid concerns raised by the senator, Trump-affiliated crypto company World Liberty Financial has secured a contract to acquire $2 billion in deposits from the Abu Dhabi government-backed Emirati Venture Fund, as reported last week.
“It's a sales of influence, a conflict of interest, a massive form of corruption that we've never witnessed,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said in an interview, reflecting comments he said he made at the meeting. “And we need to finish it.”
And Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, urged other Democrats to face the issue.
Senate law “will make it easier for the president and his family to line up in their pockets,” Warren said in a statement. “It's corruption and the senators shouldn't support it.”
These ethical concerns contribute to wider uncertainty about the Democrats' bill. Several senators have pointed to other issues and argued that the law does not provide sufficient protection against money laundering.
World Liberty did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Trump had no conflict as his assets were in the trust managed by his children. (Trump still makes financial gains from investments.) “Stable laws should be passed on a bipartisan basis,” Kelly said in a statement. “President Trump is dedicated to making America the world's crypto capital and revolutionizing digital financial technology.”
Crypto executives have been lobbying for months to pass the Genius Act. This is a bill that makes it easier for US companies to deal with Stablecoins, a kind of cryptocurrency that maintains a dollar price. It was one of the first formal acts by lawmakers, creating a regulatory system that could help the industry grow in the United States. Crypto traders like to use Stablecoins because they are not as valuable as other digital currencies, which is useful for many types of business transactions.
But boosting the industry will boost global freedom and expand the stable, ridiculous market that has recently begun publishing. Trump's family and his partners are now ingesting tens of millions of dollars in revenue per year, if not more, on the ridiculous things issued by world freedom.
That outlook prompted a pushback from democratic lawmakers.
At a meeting Thursday, Democrats challenged the bill in a series of challenges, pointing to Trump's conflicts of interest and languages that will help stable companies overseas avoid some of the new rules.
On Saturday, a group of nine Democrats, including four people who voted to advance the law from the Senate Banking Committee, announced they would not support it without major changes. They argued that the bill does not have strong provisions to stop money laundering and police foreign crypto companies, but does not mention Trump's crypto business.
As Senate Republicans need at least seven Democrats to vote with them to move past procedural hurdles, emergent opposition could kill potential legislation that would hit Washington's crypto industry policy goals.
During the 2024 election cycle, crypto companies spent more than $130 million supporting congressional candidates, including Democrats of strict races, including Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Arizona Sen. Reuben Gallego. Gallego, who voted from the Banking Committee to advance the Genius Act, was one of the lawmakers who signed the statement this weekend, expressing concern about the bill.
Merckley and Warren moved separately on Monday, asking the Government Ethics Office to investigate the Trump family's growing cryptocurrency business deal, calling it “a surprising degree of foreign influence and the potential for a quid pro that could put national security at risk.”
A version of Stablecoin Bill is also pending in the House. There, Democrat leaders plan to protest Trump's role in the industry on Tuesday.
California Democrat Sam Ricardo supports Stubcoin's law, but said recent moves by the Trump family have been dissatisfied by crypto executives seeking final decisions on the bill.
“I've been hearing more and more concerns in Silicon Valley from crypto industry leaders, and it's a deep discomfort at how Trump envelops the industry in the creptocratic schemes his sons manage,” Ricardo said.
Even some Senate Republicans and longtime cryptography supporters have expressed concern about Trump and his family's efforts to benefit from cryptography. “This is my president we're talking about, and I'm happy to say this will give me a pause,” Sen. Cynthia Ramis, a Republican of Wyoming, told NBC News last week.
Trump, a former crypto skeptic, last year promised to embrace digital currency on the campaign trail and turn the United States into a “crypto capital of the planet.” In September, he and his sons announced that they would launch World Liberty, a business that offers their own digital currency.
Once in office, Trump appointed leaders of major federal agencies to support the industry, quickly ending the Biden administration's crackdown. However, the primary purpose of the crypto world in Washington was to secure ambitious legislation that solidifies the industry's position in the US financial system.
The act of genius was the first bill to pick up momentum. In March, the Banking Committee voted 18-6 to advance the law, with Gallego and four other Democrats backing it.
It soon became clear that the stubcoin rules would intersect directly with Trump's business. About two weeks after the committee voted, World Liberty announced it would offer its own stubcoin called USD1.
The companies that issue Stablecoins operate in the same way as banks. The issuer earns money by accepting deposits from the buyer, providing coins in return, and investing those deposits to generate the yields the company holds.
Last week, one of the founders of World Liberty announced at a crypto conference that the Abu Dhabi government-backed venture capital firm will use $2 billion worth of USD1 to carry out major industry transactions.
Recent reports from the Times about Abu Dhabi's deal and other conflicts of interest were widely distributed at the Capitol last week. Senate Democrats cited these investigations, citing the investigations, according to copies obtained by the Times, and distributing notes from research attacking laws as a means for the Trump family to “promote fraudulently benefit from cryptocurrency schemes.” California Democrat Maxine Waters read the entire Times article aloud at a committee hearing last week.
At a Senate Democrat meeting, Schumer said he is concerned about language in a law that allows foreign companies that have previously been targeting US regulators to allow stubcoins in the United States to offer stubcoins in the United States, according to a Congressional aide. He urged Democrats to look into the classified briefings compiled by the Banking Committee on Tether.
A Tether spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Some details of the meeting have been reported previously by Axios.
Senate aides on Monday said negotiations continue to address some of the concerns raised by Democrats as lawmakers from both parties, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who co-sponsored the bill.
Trump has shown no indication that he is being blocked. On Monday, he posted an illustration of himself with a fist clenched into the air on social media platform Truth Social, urging his supporters to buy another new business that generated more than $100 million in fees for his family and their partners.
On Monday night, a Super PAC supporting Trump is scheduled to hold a fundraiser at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, sponsored by a crypto executive, and was asked to pay $1.5 million each.
