Gillibrand Seeks Ban on Politicians Launching Meme Coins
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- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is renewing calls to ban politicians and their spouses from issuing or promoting crypto assets, including meme coins, calling it a 'commonsense requirement' deserving bipartisan support.
- President Donald Trump disclosed this week that he earned over $1.2 billion from crypto last year, including more than $635 million from his Solana-based meme coin alone.
- Both Trump and First Lady Melania Trump benefited from meme coins during the past year, according to the disclosure.
- Gillibrand has led a broader ethics campaign, including a bipartisan push earlier this year to bar members of Congress from wagering on prediction markets amid insider-trading scrutiny.
- In May, Gillibrand said the Clarity Act market structure bill would not pass without an ethics provision extending to Trump's actions.
- When the Clarity Act cleared a key Senate vote, an ethics agreement for public officials had not yet been completed, and Galaxy researchers put the bill's 2025 passage odds at roughly 50-50, citing a lack of time.
Why it matters: Gillibrand's renewed demand ties ethics reform directly to the Clarity Act, a marquee crypto bill whose 50-50 passage odds already hinge on whether a presidential ethics provision gets written into the text. Democrats now hold leverage to slow or attach conditions to legislation the crypto industry has lobbied heavily for, meaning $1.2 billion in disclosed Trump earnings could either accelerate a compromise or freeze a key sector bill for the remainder of the session.
