This legislation follows recent White House financial disclosure reporting revealing that President Trump raked in $57.3 million from his crypto venture with World Liberty Financial in 2024.
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) led Senate colleagues in introducing the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act, legislation to enact commonsense guardrails to prevent the financial exploitation of digital assets by public officials, including the president and their immediate family.
This legislation follows recent White House financial disclosure reporting revealing that President Trump raked in $57.3 million from his crypto venture with World Liberty Financial in 2024.
“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. 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. We need far greater scrutiny of the president’s financial dealings, and to stop him and any other politician from profiting off of such schemes,” said Senator Adam Schiff.
“Ensuring this emerging market remains fair and competitive for Americans is a top priority of mine. That includes making sure all public officials, including Members of Congress, the president, Vice president, and Special Government Employees, do not receive an opportunity to game the system. I’m proud to be introducing the COIN Act alongside Senator Schiff and my fellow colleagues,” said Senator Angela Alsobrooks.
“Digital assets have presented new opportunities for potential corruption by public officials, including by our highest elected leaders and their families. This commonsense legislation would protect against the abuse of digital assets by Members of Congress, the president, and any future high-ranking elected officials,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
“Americans deserve to have full faith in their public officials. From meme coins to NFTs, we need to set the necessary guardrails to root out corruption, stop those in power from exploiting digital assets, and rebuild this sacred trust between government and the American people,” said Senator Andy Kim.
“Our democracy is rooted in the principle that American government works for the people, not for the benefit of those in power. The President’s overt self-dealing related to crypto while in office, which has extended to his family, is blatant corruption. This legislation simply preserves the integrity of our government as we work to establish needed regulations on digital assets. I’m proud to be joining Senator Schiff in this effort,” said Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester.
“President Trump is using the highest office in the land to profit off a personal meme coin – it’s beneath the presidency and it’s blatant corruption,” said Senator Ben Ray Luján. “This kind of self-dealing is a serious conflict of interest and a violation of public trust. That’s why my colleagues and I are introducing the COIN Act to ensure that the President and their immediate family can’t exploit public office to cash in on digital assets.”
“President Trump’s dangerous conflicts of interest cast a dark shadow on progress towards properly regulating the cryptocurrency industry. Congress must pass strong ethics safeguards for crypto to stop public officials from attempting to abuse their public office for private gain. Protections like those in the COIN Act are an indispensable part of Congress’ work to make crypto markets safer while ensuring that public officials’ priority is always the people, not foreign governments or their personal wealth,” said Virginia Canter, Anticorruption and Ethics Chief Counsel and Director at Democracy Defenders Action.
“Crypto and other digital assets represent the new frontier in our economy in a number of ways, both good and bad. As the regulatory status and broader utility of these new technologies get sorted out, we must keep in mind and guard against the myriad ways digital assets represent a possible vector of government corruption and influence-peddling. Recent and deeply concerning events in this arena related to government officials and their relationships to digital asset ventures make this potential a reality. This is why Senator Schiff and his colleagues should be applauded for introducing the COIN Act, a commonsense proposal to enact reasonable safeguards and necessary constraints around public officials and their investment in digital assets,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Interim Vice-President of Policy and Government Affairs at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).
“When Donald Trump rewarded 220 of the biggest investors in his personal meme coin with a private dinner and tour of the White House, that was not only a vulgar display of greed, it also revealed how wealthy special interests could buy presidential favors. Nearly all the investors sought the one-on-one dinner with an aim to influence public policy. And the bidding brought in millions of dollars in personal profit for Trump. The COIN Act is desperately-needed legislation to stop government officials from exploiting cryptocurrency for personal gain and selling official favors,” said Craig Holman, Ph.D., Public Citizen.
The COIN Act includes critical reforms to safeguard against public officials exploiting digital assets for their own personal profits.
Specifically, this legislation seeks to:
- Amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to prohibit public officials – including the president, vice president, high-ranking executive branch employees and special government employees, and Members of Congress – from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing digital assets, including meme coins, NFTs, or stablecoins. This prohibition covers 180 days prior to and 2 years after an individuals’ service. It also extends to individuals’ immediate family members.
- Require public officials to include digital assets in their annual financial disclosures and periodic transaction reports.
- Codify that the issuance, purchase, sale or holding of digital assets are considered financial interests public officials must consider when recusing themselves from official matters under the criminal conflict of interest statute.
- Require stablecoin issuers to certify quarterly with the Office of Government Ethics and regulators that public officials are not personally profiting from the issuance of such stablecoins to receive regulatory approval.
- Require the Government Accountability Office to submit to Congress within 360 days a report with recommendations to update federal ethics laws to incorporate future regulatory frameworks related to digital assets.
This legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
The bill is endorsed by Public Citizen, the Project on Government Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Democracy Defenders Action.
Full text of the bill is available here.
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