Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s MemeCoin.
In Friday’s notice, Gillibrand said Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said the proposed ban would include any US president and his or her spouse, but he did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of his or her family.
Gillibrand said, “This is a common-sense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not issue memecoins.” “We cannot let self-dealing destroy our opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.”
Source: Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand is one of the lawmakers behind negotiations in the Senate regarding the Digital Asset Markets Clarity Act, legislation that has faced delays due to concerns about ethics, tokenization, and stablecoin rewards. Although he expected the chamber to vote on the bill by the Senate’s August State of the Union business period, he cited the competence of elected officials, saying that no one would vote for the bill without addressing ethics.[getting] These industries are rich because of their internal position.
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During consideration of the Guidance and Establishment National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) in 2025, the New York lawmaker said senators have removed provisions specifically targeting Trump’s ties to the crypto industry, including his Memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP).
He said at the time that Memecoin was likely “illegal based on existing law”, but that it would take a “very long and detailed bill” to address all of Trump’s ethics problems. Trump signed the Genius Act into law in July 2025.
Notably, Gillibrand’s proposed memecoin ban did not extend to other family members. In addition to his personal investments in the crypto industry, Trump has faced criticism over his sons’ involvement in crypto platform World Liberty Financial and his Bitcoin (BTC) mining company American Bitcoin.
Trump dismisses conflict of interest concerns with crypto industry
This week, Trump reported that he made approximately $1.4 billion from crypto ventures in the year he took office. The financial windfall came as he was in a position to influence legislation on digital assets, including the Genius Act and the Clarity Act.
According to Trump, there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” in profiting from his investments during his tenure as president, while he did not directly answer questions about the alleged conflict of interest.
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