WASHINGTON – Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday introduced a bill banning the president and other top U.S. officials from participating in crypto business schemes while in office.
The Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure Act would bar top-ranking U.S. officials from issuing, sponsoring or endorsing digital assets, including memecoins, stablecoins and NFTs, as President Donald Trump has done.
Progressive Democrats, including Schiff, had hoped to include a presidential crypto ban as part of a stablecoin regulation bill the Senate passed last week, but Republicans said no, and then Schiff and 17 other Democrats voted for the bill anyway.
Republicans aren’t interested in policing Trump’s crypto conflicts of interest, so it’s not clear how Schiff’s COIN Act could become law if it’s not attached to some other bill. It’s possible Democrats will get another chance to use their leverage, especially if Republicans move another crypto bill or House Republicans amend the stablecoin bill, requiring the Senate to vote on it again.
In a statement from his office, Schiff blasted the president’s crypto ventures, which include a $TRUMP memecoin whose top buyers the president rewarded with a fancy dinner last month.
“President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency dealings have raised significant ethical, legal and constitutional concerns over his use of the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his family,” Schiff said. “That’s why I am introducing legislation to prevent the financial exploitation of any digital assets by public officials, including the President and the First Family.”
Schiff might not have become a senator if the crypto industry hadn’t dumped $10 million in campaign spending against his top Democratic primary opponent, former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). Porter aligned herself with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as an advocate for the stricter regulation of cryptocurrency, which is used mostly for financial speculation and crime. The Stand with Crypto Alliance rates Schiff as strongly supportive of the industry.
The bill that passed the Senate last week, called the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, would establish industry-approved regulations for stablecoins, a type of digital asset designed to maintain a fixed value. If it becomes law, the bill would begin the process of entrenching digital assets as part of the U.S. financial system.
The crypto-friendly Democrats balked at the bill on a procedural vote in May as Trump prepared to host the dinner for this memecoin holders. Schiff and others tried to add language to the legislation restricting the president’s ability to participate in stablecoin ventures, but Republicans refused to go along.
Schiff’s bill is co-sponsored mostly by Democrats who voted for the GENIUS Act, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), Andy Kim (N.J.) and Angela Alsobrooks (Md.). Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who voted against the stablecoin bill, also co-sponsored Schiff’s proposal.