PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are leading an effort to stop “cryptocurrency corruption,” by those elected to public office.
Merkley and Schumer announced their effort leading the End Crypto Corruption Act which would ban the president, vice president, senior executive branch officials, members of Congress and their immediate families from issuing, sponsoring or endorsing crypto, such as meme coins and stablecoins.
The bill comes amid conflict-of-interest concerns surrounding President Trump’s crypto deals, the lawmakers said.
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“Currently, people who wish to cultivate influence with the president can enrich him personally by buying cryptocurrency he owns or controls,” said Senator Merkley. “This is a profoundly corrupt scheme. It endangers our national security and erodes public trust in government. Let’s end this corruption immediately.”
Schumer added, “Donald Trump’s attempts at grift and corruption are well known and well documented. And right now individuals can curry favor with this White House and make money for Trump by purchasing his digital assets. Senate Democrats aren’t going to stand by and let Donald Trump put our national security and consumers at risk so he can make money off the Office of the Presidency. Our democracy shouldn’t be for sale.”
The bill comes after Merkley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, sounding the alarm over a billion-dollar deal between Trump and a foreign crypto company.
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The bill has several cosponsors including Sen. Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
As reported by the Associated Press, President Trump launched a meme coin earlier in 2025, which has created more than $320 million in fees for its creators.
On Monday, Trump promoted a contest that’s open to almost anyone who purchases his meme coin, with the top 220 meme coin holders being eligible to attend a late May dinner where the president will be in attendance.
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While Trump does not have to sell the coin to make money, AP explains, “Trump meme coins can be traded on a decentralized exchange, which is essentially a place where traders can swap goods without a middleman.”
“Instead of matching buyers and sellers one by one, decentralized exchanges use something called a liquidity pool to ensure trades can happen easily and instantly. Liquidity pools are essentially an automated pot of funds that pair meme coins like $TRUMP with more popular types of crypto that can be easily traded,” AP reports.
“When the Trump meme coin was first launched, its creators initially released 20% of the planned 1 billion total coins. Half of that 20% was put up for public sale while the other half was put into a liquidity pool. CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and another company receive ‘trading revenue derived from trading activities’ of the Trump meme coins, according to its website,” AP said. “Through the liquidity pool, the creators of Trump’s meme coins make money by charging tiny fees on each trade.”
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“You don’t really care about what happens to the price. You only care that there is continuous volume,” Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at the blockchain analytics firm Nansen, told AP. “Because the more volume there is, that means more trades and therefore more fees for you.”
AP noted that during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump claimed he does not track the price of his meme coin and denied the idea that he’s profiting from the presidency.
“Should I contribute all of my real estate that I’ve owned for many years if it goes up a little bit because I’m president and doing a good job? I don’t think so,” Trump said.
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