Trump’s crypto profits fuel Democratic opposition to proposed US cryptocurrency regulations
Amid debates over proposed legislation to regulate digital currencies, members of the U.S. Democratic Party organized a “shadow hearing” to discuss the crypto wealth accumulated by President Donald Trump.
Congressional Democrats are using the sudden surge in crypto wealth accumulated by U.S. President Donald Trump as a rallying cry to defeat legislation that would create a new regulatory landscape for the digital currency industry.
The Senate is scheduled to take a procedural vote Tuesday on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which if passed by both legislative chambers would set new rules to govern the growing crypto sector. The procedural vote is needed for the Senate to debate the measure.
In a bid to peel off some Democrats, Republican Party leaders in Congress over the weekend incorporated ethics provisions that would prevent any U.S. president or other government officials from issuing digital assets.
“It purports to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption by the president of the United States. It is a charade. It is a sham. It should prompt a no vote by every member of the United States Senate,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.
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Blumenthal was speaking the day before the procedural vote at a “shadow hearing” he had organized along with Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, to discuss the Trump family’s enrichment while in office. While much of the hearing allowed Democrats to raise points they will campaign on in November elections, the senator and witnesses took special aim at the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.
Testifying at the shadow hearing, Scott Greytek, the deputy executive director of Transparency International’s U.S. office, said Trump last year made over $1.4 billion tied to his crypto ventures — $800 million connected to a stake in World Liberty Financial, and another $635 million from Trump-branded meme coins.
“He has enormous power over the industry over which he is writing and enforcing the rules. And at the same time, he’s making enormous amounts of money from that very same industry,” Greytek said. “What is the American public supposed to think here? What is the answer? Trust me, that’s not how anti-corruption works.”
Republicans argue the bill address threats to both the finance sector and national security. In January, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs released several fact sheets promoting the bill.
"It strengthens disclosure requirements, preserves anti-fraud authorities, limits insider abuse, and promotes coordinated oversight and financial literacy," according to the committee’s statement.
"The bill closes major national-security gaps while keeping legitimate crypto activity onshore and under U.S. oversight," the committee added.
Citing prepared remarks received in advance on Monday, the financial cable channel CNBC reported that influential Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren dismissed the Clarity Act as a “weak fig leaf that will do nothing to stop [Trump] from making his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch, the top Democrat on a crypto subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee, noted in Monday’s hearing that 78 Democrats voted for the Clarity Act when it passed in the House of Representatives in July 2025.
“So we’ve got a lot of work to do on our side as well,” he warned.
Public interest groups such as RepresentUs contend the Clarity Act allows public officials like Trump to maintain their current business deals, requires little disclosure, has ethics safeguards that sunset in 2029 and lacks sufficient insider-trading rules.
“The bill is a blueprint for legalized corruption,” Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, CEO of RepresentUs, said in a statement Monday.
“Right now, sitting officials and their family members can launch a crypto coin, take a cut in trading fees, and let anyone — a foreign national, a foreign government, a defense contractor, a person with a case at a federal agency — buy influence anonymously with a few keystrokes,” she said.