Newsom Goes Full 'No Coin' on Politi-Memecoins 🚫

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed Assembly Bill 2409, barring state and local public officials from issuing memecoins, and framed the law as a direct rebuke of US President Donald Trump's crypto ventures. The bill, introduced by Assembly Member Avelino Valencia on Feb. 20, 2026, also prohibits digital asset service providers from offering memecoins issued by or in partnership with federal, state or local public officials to California residents and applies to tokens issued on or after Jan. 1, 2027. "No official should profit off their office — and we're putting stronger protections in place to ensure it doesn't happen in our state," Newsom said Sunday. His office titled the announcement "THE OPPOSITE OF TRUMP," singling out Trump's 2025 memecoin launch.

AB 2409 adds a memecoin prohibition to California's Government Code and authorizes the state attorney general, a district attorney, a city attorney or county counsel to enforce the rules through civil action. Newsom signed the measure as part of an 11-bill package addressing corruption, consumer protection and cryptocurrency crime. The package also includes Senate Bill 1208, which expands existing money laundering statutes to cover illicit transactions made using digital assets and broadly authorizes law enforcement to freeze, seize and forfeit digital assets linked to crimes. Other measures in the package set rules for repaying crypto scam victims and create a legal process for seizing digital assets tied to transnational criminal organizations.

The bill follows the trajectory of Trump's $TRUMP token, which launched three days before his early 2025 inauguration and surged from under $1 to $75 within a day or two, briefly pushing market capitalization to $14 billion before crashing. Data tracked by Nansen shows 988,905 buyers lost a combined $3.81 billion. Trump's financial disclosure lists $636 million in royalties from the coin, and Trump Organization affiliates reportedly control about 80% of the supply. As of this writing, $TRUMP trades at $2.03. Trump's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the California law, and it remains unclear whether the ban covers meme tokens already in existence such as $TRUMP.

Existing California law already prohibits state officers and employees from engaging in employment activity or enterprise inconsistent with their duties, and AB 2409 layers the memecoin prohibition on top of those rules. Newsom, whose second and final term ends in January, is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender. The signed package positions California's stance on official-linked memecoins and digital asset enforcement as distinct from federal policy under the current administration.