As the Crypto Week event, aimed at speedrunning three crypto bills, kicked off in DC, Democrats started their own event called Crypto Corruption Awareness Week. Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Stephen Lynch, and their comrades are pushing for clauses that will block sitting presidents from participating in the crypto business. Experts doubt that fighting corruption is their true motive.
Crypto Corruption Awareness Week
House Republicans declared a Crypto Week. This week, they are going to advance three crucial crypto bills. These bills are the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, which bans the Federal Reserve from launching cryptocurrency directly to people, the GENIUS Act, aimed at stablecoin regulation, and the CLARITY Act, which will determine the legal status of digital assets. Two of these acts were created with contributions from both parties, but later Democrats became antagonistic towards the adoption of this legislation, demanding to add clauses that limit possible involvement of top officials and their families in the crypto business.
In the Anti-Crypto Corruption press release published on the DC Office website on July 13, Democrats reminded that Trump himself was speaking out against Bitcoin in 2021. They explain Trump’s heart by greed, stating “What “hanged? He realized just how much money he could make from it.”
The press release names $350 million as the fortune made by Donald Trump in a few weeks following a memecoin launched three days before the inauguration. According to the estimation provided in the press release, the Official Trump token is to blame for the over $2 billion loss of the investors. The authors of the document believe the Official Trump token launch fits in a pump and dump scheme.
Democrats suggest that Trump’s action is de facto an unregistered security, so it violates the securities law. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that memecoins should be treated as collectibles and not securities. The press release stresses that this decision was made by “Trump” Trump’s
On top of that, Democrats bring up the fact that Trump’s offer to have dinner with the President through hefty investments is the gate for foreign influences, or a “vessel” for corruption,” as the New Republic media put it. In conclusion, the authors of the press release urge voters to vote “No” on the CLARITY and GENIUS Acts and support Maxine Waters’ “Stop TRUMP in the Crypto Act” of 2025. The act is aimed at banning the sitting President, vice president, congress members, and their immediate families from participating in the crypto business.
The document quotes the words of Rep. Lynch:
“President Trump’s spect for the rule of law is breathtaking. Never in American history has a sitting president so blatantly violated ethics laws and openly pushed an agenda for his own financial gain. President Trump and his family are exploiting the presidency to line their pockets through their personal crypto scam, World Liberty Financial. These corrupt actions, along with the volatile and risky nature of crypto, will have devastating consequences on Americans’ lives, and Congress cannot allow it to continue.”
Trump’s involvement in the crypto business is problematic
Indeed, Trump’s investment in the crypto business is turning heads. Some crypto enthusiasts believe it is a sign that the President has skin in the game and will take serious steps towards the liberation of the American crypto sector. Others, including moderate Trump supporters, believe that Trump is giving the crypto space a bad look and believe that his and his family’s ventures are scandalous. The reason is clear–he uses his influence and popularity as a President to sell people things and creates multiple conflicts of interest along the way. The foul play is evident to many, but the aftermath is limited to voicing the criticism. The fact that 33.4% of the entire MELANIA token supply has been sold minutes before the launch casts even a bigger shadow on the Trump family, and at the same time on the crypto industry.
Crypto capital concentrated in the hands of the Trump family now includes MELANIA and Official Trump memecoins, Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin, multi-faceted crypto company World Liberty Financial, USD1 stablecoins issued by WLFi, and more. According to Forbes, Donald Trump alone raked $1 billion after taxes through his crypto ventures.
On July 14, MSNBC released an Opinion article by Maxine Waters in which she states that the “pending” crypto legislation will open the floodgates to massive fraud and financial ruin for millions of American families.”
Is the motive of Democrats righteous?
While Democrats threaten to take three bills hostage in order to save America from corruption, some believe that their motivation is not that righteous. Scott Melker, investor and the host of the Wolf of All Streets podcast, considers that Democrats are rather trying to protect big banks, not consumers.
The Jacobin website provides a different version. According to this publication, Democrats considered voting against the crypto bills would become a “political suicide” for them. Allegedly, they decided to support the bills and offer symbolic anti-corruption amendments that will be blocked by Republicans anyway. However, it will depict Democrats as the power interested in cryptocurrency regulation and attract crypto votes anyway.
What makes some people doubt that Democrats are really concerned with protecting American citizens against any real threat coming from the crypto space is that in 2022, Maxine Waters was very soft with Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, when he was accused of fraud. Instead of objecting to scrutiny, Waters praised a series of interviews that Bankman-Fried gave following the collapse of FTX. Before the arrest, he made several donations to Democrats. On July 14, in her speech in the House Rules Committee, Waters mentioned FTX as an example of how bad crypto platforms can be.
The Republican majority in DC is not absolute, so Democrats could have an effect. Soon we’ll see if this week is a Crypto Week or rather a Crypto Corruption Week.
