Gillibrand's Memecoin Prohibition Pitch: "No More Coin Flips in Congress" 🪙

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is renewing her push to bar members of Congress, the president, and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, citing President Donald Trump's memecoin earnings and broader concerns about elected officials profiting from their offices. "This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support — public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins," the New York Democrat said in a Friday statement. "We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind." She added: "The time to act is now — and that must include ethics reforms that prohibit members of Congress, the president, and their spouses from cashing in on their office."

The proposal lands as the Senate weighs the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a market structure bill Gillibrand has helped negotiate and that she once expected to reach a vote by the Senate's August state work period. Speaking at the Solana Accelerate conference in Miami and later to reporters, Gillibrand said Democrats will not support advancing the bill without ethics provisions and said she is hopeful the CLARITY Act can move through the Senate Banking Committee in the coming two weeks. She also pointed to ongoing debates over stablecoin yields and anti-illegal-finance measures. "No one would vote for the bill without addressing ethics," she said, citing the potential of elected officials "getting rich off of these industries because of their insider status." In May, she warned the CLARITY Act would not pass without language addressing Trump's crypto ties, including the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, which she previously called likely "illegal based on current law."

The renewed push follows the Office of Government Ethics' release of Trump's 927-page annual financial disclosure, which reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income for 2025. The largest single line item was $636 million tied to CIC Digital LLC, linked to the TRUMP memecoin license. First Lady Melania Trump reported roughly $6 million from NFTs and digital collectibles, and the disclosure also listed more than $50 million in Bitcoin (BTC) holdings. Trump has defended the earnings, telling reporters there was "nothing illegal" and "nothing wrong" with profiting from his investments while in office, and that he made money whether prices rose or fell. The president and his sons have also faced criticism for their involvement in World Liberty Financial and the mining company American Bitcoin, though Gillibrand's proposed restriction does not appear to extend to those family members or to the vice president.

The economics of the TRUMP token are now central to the debate. Official Trump (TRUMP) trades near $1.80, down more than 97% from its $73.43 peak set in January 2025, according to BeInCrypto data, while one source listed the high as $75.35. The New York Times and blockchain analytics firm Nansen reported that 988,905 wallets had collectively lost $3.81 billion on the token through the end of June, combining realized and unrealized losses. Economist Peter Schiff this week described the token sales as legal bribes, arguing that buyers were paying for access to the president. Gillibrand is a cosponsor of Senator Jeff Merkley's End Crypto Corruption Act, introduced in May 2025, which would bar presidents, lawmakers, senior officials, and their families from issuing or endorsing digital assets, including memecoins and stablecoins.

Gillibrand's ethics message is facing separate scrutiny of its own. Fortune and a June 18 social media post by reporter Ben Weiss reported that her son, 22-year-old Theodore Gillibrand, raised $30 million from investors led by Lux Capital at a $300 million valuation for his startup, American Perpetuals Exchange Corp, which plans to seek Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approval to list perpetual futures on stocks and indexes. Gillibrand has said her son runs the business without her involvement. Galaxy researchers put the odds of the CLARITY Act passing this year at roughly 50-50, citing limited remaining legislative time rather than the bill's substance.