President Donald Trump’s personal involvement in the cryptocurrency market has triggered a robust response from Senate Democrats, exemplified by a new bill introduced by Senator Chris Murphy. This legislation aims to prohibit presidents and their families from engaging with memecoins or issuing any other financial assets.
Senator Murphy unveiled the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act during an overnight session, coinciding with fellow Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s recent Senate floor address. Warren emphasized specific criteria that would encourage her party’s senators to resume discussions on stablecoin legislation. In just a matter of days, Democrats have united to counteract the momentum the U.S. digital assets industry had been gaining in Washington.
Murphy’s initiative parallels a similar effort in the House of Representatives, led by Representative Sam Liccardo, a California Democrat. The focus here is on the president’s $TRUMP memecoin and the dubious financial benefits that he and his family appear to gain from its launch shortly before his inauguration. Murphy contended that the anonymity surrounding buyers of the memecoin complicates transparency regarding its impact on Trump’s personal fortune. Recently, Eric Trump announced that an investment firm based in Abu Dhabi will utilize Trump’s backed World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin to finalize a $2 billion investment in the global crypto exchange, Binance.
“The Trump meme coin is the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president,” Murphy asserted in a statement released on Tuesday. “Donald Trump is essentially posting his Venmo for any billionaire CEO or foreign oligarch to cash in some favors by secretly sending him millions of dollars.”
Murphy’s legislation extends beyond the president and his memecoin, seeking to prevent the president, vice president, members of Congress, senior administration officials, and their families from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing any financial assets—including securities, futures, commodities, and digital assets. While the bill is unlikely to progress under a Republican majority, it clearly delineates a party stance against Trump’s financial activities.
Responses from White House representatives were not immediately available.
In a different segment of the Senate, Senator Warren, a long-standing critic of the crypto sector, presented her requirements for amending stablecoin legislation to make it more appealing to her Democratic colleagues. During her speech, she pinpointed the necessity for rigorous controls against money laundering and other illicit activities, a prohibition on big tech firms acting as issuers, and restrictions on government officials from issuing stablecoins for personal gain.
The Trump family’s involvement with World Liberty Financial—a company that has introduced its own stablecoin—further complicates the landscape.
“We cannot bless Trump’s corruption,” Warren emphasized, while also suggesting that stablecoin regulations could advance with certain consumer-friendly compromises.
Following the swift approval of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act by the Senate Banking Committee, where Warren serves as the ranking Democrat, several of her colleagues expressed concerns regarding developments related to Trump’s crypto business. Notably, some Democrats raised objections regarding a dinner the president was set to host for prominent memecoin holders and the international use of WLFI’s stablecoins. In a statement, nine Democrats indicated that they could not support the existing stablecoin bill under these controversial circumstances.
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