Sen. Elizabeth Warren is slamming the Senate leaders of both parties for not including ethics restrictions on a cryptocurrency regulation bill after annual financial disclosures revealed that President Donald Trump earned more than $1 billion from the industry in 2025.
Warren (D-Massachusetts) sent a letter to Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, pushing both leaders to include ethics guardrails banning senior administration officials and members of Congress from profiting off the cryptocurrency industry in the CLARITY Act, the emerging vehicle to regulate the crypto market.
Schumer has signaled he wants ethics provisions in the final bill, but it’s unclear where the negotiations over the guardrails stand. Thune has indicated that the CLARITY Act will receive a floor vote this month.
“The crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must prevent the President, Vice President, senior administration officials, members of Congress and their families from profiting off of the crypto industry,” Warren wrote in the letter. “Anything less would be a flagrant giveaway to the President and his family at the expense of the public.”
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Trump and his family own stakes in World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform and stablecoin issuer that is expected to receive a federal banking charter soon. The first family has been building a broader crypto empire and has earned at least $2.3 billion across four ventures.
“Crypto now accounts for the vast majority of the President’s income,” Warren wrote. “This new disclosure is particularly troubling as the President urges Congress to pass cryptocurrency deregulation legislation that will almost certainly boost the value of his crypto holdings.”
Warren’s letter is the latest example ofa widening split among Democratsover how best to regulate the emerging industry amid an influx of spending by cryptocurrency groups in elections across the country. Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Maryland) and Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) voted to advance the bill out of committee, though both have said they will not support a final version that doesn’t contain ethics restrictions.
“We are in a digital revolution in our country and we absolutely need regulation and guardrails to ensure that the people who are engaging do so in a way that is safe, and that the United States continues to innovate,” Alsobrooks told NOTUS in June.
In her letter, Warren said “significant flaws in the current draft” have highlighted wider concerns about risks to national security and consumer protection — matters that are “even more pressing” following Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure, she wrote.
It’s unclear how the bill could progress without a measure addressing the president’s holdings: The Republican-led legislation requires some bipartisan support to reach 60 votes. A July vote would follow a series of delays mainly concerning the bill’s lack of an ethics provision and a different measure that would protect software developers from criminal prosecution if their software is used illegally.
An amendment introduced by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) would have banned members of Congress and high-ranking government officials including the president, vice president and their families from owning, promoting or affiliating with cryptocurrency companies — but the effort failed in committee in May.
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