Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal is investigating how President Donald Trump's crypto business ventures are potentially violating federal laws.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday that President Trump's meme coin launch and other crypto industry ventures represent "an unprecedented, pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the Presidency to the highest bidder."
Blumenthal announced that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations would be opening a preliminary inquiry into the launch of the president's cryptocurrency, Official Trump, along with DeFi platform World Liberty Financial and the president's other digital asset interests.
"Chillingly, TRUMP allows, and even invites, anyone in the world, including foreign governments and unscrupulous individuals, to directly enrich the president, while hiding potential payoffs in the pseudonymity of the blockchain," Blumenthal said in his announcement, quoting a letter to he wrote to the developer of the Official Trump cryptocurrency, Bill Zanker.
The new commander-in-chief ahead of his January inauguration launched a Solana-based meme coin called Official Trump—which trades as TRUMP—and it quickly soared in value before crashing. It's now down 85% from its peak price.
Democrats have alleged that the new commander in chief has profited from the virtual coin's launch, but the president has denied this and avoided questions on the matter.
The president is also associated with an Ethereum-based decentralized finance project, World Liberty Financial. Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Jr., first announced the project last year, and the then-Republican nominee promoted the project on social media ahead of his election win.
Decrypt in March reported that the president and his associates had pocketed around $390 million in revenue from promoting World Liberty Financial.
In April, President Trump also announced a private dinner later this month at his Washington-area golf club for the top 220 holders of his meme coin, plus a private reception and a White House tour for other investors.
The announcements have drawn ire from Democratic lawmakers, who claim that promoting the meme coin is corrupt. House Democrats walked out of a hearing Tuesday about impending crypto industry legislation, due to complaints over Trump's perceived crypto conflicts.
President Trump campaigned ahead of his November win to help the digital asset industry and received backing from crypto entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley hotshots and members of the "PayPal mafia", including current White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Edited by James Rubin
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