A Senate Democrat wants to ban officials from launching their own memecoins

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (@gillibrandny) is renewing her push to prohibit elected officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, pointing directly to the Solana-based $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins as the catalyst for the proposal.

What the proposal covers, and what it does not

Gillibrand said legislation she has championed alongside several Senate colleagues would prohibit the president, members of Congress, and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrencies, including memecoins. The renewed push follows newly released financial disclosures showing that President Donald Trump reported more than $600 million in income from his $TRUMP memecoin in 2025, making it his largest single reported source of income that year.

The proposal has a notable gap, however. Gillibrand's proposed restriction does not appear to extend to other family members. Trump has separately faced criticism over his sons' involvement in the crypto platform World Liberty Financial and their Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin. Neither entity would be affected under the current terms of the bill.

If enacted, the proposal would apply to both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who separately disclosed approximately $6 million in income from NFTs and other digital collectibles.

The CLARITY Act and the ethics impasse

The proposal is landing in the middle of a broader and increasingly tense fight over crypto legislation on Capitol Hill. Gillibrand is one of the key negotiators on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, and she has made her position plain. The long-awaited legislation to establish U.S. regulations for crypto markets will not survive the Senate without a contentious ethics provision that bans senior government officials from personal interests in the industry, she has said.

The ethics clause is one of the last major sticking points in negotiations over the CLARITY Act, and Gillibrand has made clear it is non-negotiable for her and the Democrats whose votes the bill needs to pass. During consideration of the GENIUS Act in 2025, senators removed provisions specifically targeting Trump's ties to the crypto industry, including his memecoin. Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025. Gillibrand has said she will not allow similar language to be stripped from the next major crypto bill.

Senate Democrats including Ruben Gallego and Kirsten Gillibrand are conducting close, three-party talks with Republican counterparts and the White House to resolve the outstanding ethics dispute. The window for legislative action is narrowing, with Gillibrand predicting a final vote could happen in the first week of August, if Congress is lucky, marking the last realistic opportunity before lawmakers break for summer recess.

Traders on prediction markets platform Polymarket currently see a 65% chance of the CLARITY Act being signed into law by the end of 2026.

Sources
The Crypto Times: Sen. Gillibrand Revives Crypto Ban Push After Trump's $636M Memecoin
CoinTelegraph: US Senator Calls for Ban on Elected Officials Issuing Memecoins
CoinDesk: Crypto Bill Won't Move Without a Ban on Officials' Industry Ties, Says Gillibrand