Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the U.S. lawmakers leading negotiations on the Digital Asset Market Structure Act in Congress, has proposed banning elected officials and presidents from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s meme coins.
Gillibrand said in Friday’s notice that Congress should support a measure that would prohibit elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said the proposed restrictions would include any U.S. president and his or her spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or his or her family.
“This is a common-sense requirement that should have broad bipartisan support, and public servants and their spouses should not be minting meme coins,” Gillibrand said. “We cannot allow self-dealing to undermine our opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans left behind by our financial system.”
sauce: Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand is one of the lawmakers leading negotiations on the Senate Digital Asset Market Transparency Act (CLARITY), which has faced delays due to concerns over ethics, tokenization, and stablecoin rewards. He expects the Legislature to vote on the bill before the Senate’s August state work session, but added that no one would vote in favor of the bill without citing ethics, citing the possibility that elected officials are “[getting]riches from these industries because of their insider status.”
Related: Senate Democrats call for investigation into $500 million in cryptocurrency transactions between President Trump and the UAE
During consideration of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 (GENIUS Act), New York state legislators said the senator removed a provision that specifically targeted Trump’s ties to the cryptocurrency industry, including Memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP).
She said at the time that memecoins were likely “illegal under current law,” but that addressing all of President Trump’s ethics issues would result in “a very long and detailed bill.” President Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July 2025.
Notably, Gillibrand’s proposed memecoin restrictions did not appear to apply to other family members. In addition to his personal investments in the cryptocurrency industry, President Trump has come under fire for his sons’ involvement in the cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial and its Bitcoin (BTC) mining company American Bitcoin.
President Trump dismisses concerns about conflict of interest with cryptocurrency industry
This week, President Trump reported that he made about $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures in the same year he took office. This financial windfall came at a time when he was in a position to influence digital asset legislation such as the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act.
Trump said there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his presidential investments, but he did not directly answer questions about possible conflicts of interest.
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