Congress wrangles over crypto bill as critics say Trump is 'selling access'

Donald Trump approaches to embrace Donald Trump Jr at his campaign rally, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Crypto has become one of the Trump organization’s most lucrative businesses in recent years. Now, according to Politico, Democratic lawmakers are attempting to crack down on the industry amidst growing accusations of conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his family.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump made big promises to those in the crypto space, saying he would pass a sweeping bill to buoy the industry. But now, not only are Republicans running out of time to pass such legislation, knowing that they’re unlikely to retain control of both houses of Congress, but they must court Democratic support as they need at least a few votes from the other side of the aisle.

“There is no final bill — there is no final movement — unless there is a bipartisan agreement when it comes to the ethics provision,” said Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who has expressed support for the bill and participated in negotiations. But if Republicans are going to get that bipartisan support, they will need to agree to a Democratic provision that would restrict how White House officials can use digital assets.

While the Trump administration has insisted that its actions have been above the board in regard to crypto, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denying that Trump nor his family “have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” Democratic lawmakers have pointed out that the president has much to gain from a deregulated industry as it currently accounts for over $1 billion of his organization’s wealth. Once openly skeptical of crypto, saying it “seems like a scam,” Trump embraced it as his family became increasingly entangled in the space, to the point where he vowed to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet.” Today, Trump and his sons make big money from digital currency trading as the co-founders of World Liberty Financial, a Trump-themed memecoin and the Truth Social parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which works throughout crypto markets.

These ties to the industry, warn critics, make it easy for the Trump administration to engage in digitally financed quid pro quo. For example, Mar-a-Lago hosted a crypto conference on Saturday for the top 300 investors in the Trump memecoin.

“It’s a pretty blatant example of the president selling access,” said Donald Sherman, who leads the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The president, said Sherman, is “effectively auctioning off access to the highest bidder with no transparency.”

Now, as Congress negotiates a bill that would decouple crypto from Wall Street regulation, Democrats are pushing for language that would put “a ban on sponsoring, endorsing or issuing digital assets that applies to all federal employees,” including the president.

The need for such a provision is so apparent that even one Republican has backed it.

“There has to be ethics language in the bill before it leaves the Senate,” said Senator Thoms Tillis (R-NC), “or I’ll go from one of the people working on negotiating it to voting against it.”

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