There will be no deal without an ethics provision in sweeping cryptocurrency market structure legislation, warned Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the bill’s most prominent advocates.
Many Senate Democrats have raised concerns over President Donald Trump and his family's crypto connections. Both Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, launched memecoins ahead of the inauguration, and his family has led the DeFi and stablecoin project World Liberty Financial.
Bloomberg has estimated that Trump has raked in at least $1.4 billion from his crypto ventures. Trump's crypto interests have also faced scrutiny over potential national security and foreign influence risks following an investment tied to the United Arab Emirates.
"It is essential — and I want everyone in this room to take this to heart — there will be no one voting for this bill if we don't have an ethics provision," Gillibrand said on Wednesday at the Consensus Miami conference. "The truth is that we cannot allow members of Congress, senior administration officials, presidents, or vice presidents to get rich off these industries because of their insider status."
A bill to comprehensively regulate the crypto industry at the federal level for the first time has been stuck in the Senate over the past few months. The main blocker has been around the treatment of stablecoin rewards, which Gillibrand said is squared away after Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., reached a compromise that could clear the way for a markup this month.
Ethics has emerged as the next hurdle.
Bill is a no-go without ethics
Earlier this year, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the crypto bill, without Democratic support, citing Trump's crypto interests as a major obstacle. Democrats in that committee proposed amendments that would block the president, vice president, lawmakers, and other federal officials from making certain financial transactions involving digital assets, but were ultimately not included in the bill.
Meanwhile, Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott has said ethics is not within the panel's jurisdiction.
Gillibrand said she is working with both Democrats and Republicans — as well as the White House — to ensure ethics language is included.
"We are working really hard to get the agreement by Republicans and by allies in Congress, and also through the White House so that this provision will be part of this bill, or it will not go forward," she said on Wednesday. "We cannot let greed and corruption in Washington tear this industry down, and without that provision, that's exactly what will happen."
Gillibrand also said there is a push for consumer protection language in the bill, including around illicit finance and anti-terrorism funding.
As for next steps, a bill could get passed into law before the August recess, she said.
Earlier, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal told The Block's Gareth Jenkinson at Consensus that he is "very confident" that a crypto market structure bill will pass before the summer ends.