Crypto products backed by U.S. President Donald Trump are making it difficult for lawmakers to have a productive dialogue on regulating digital assets, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said on Wednesday.
“Trump doesn't just want Americans to use his crypto,” she said, referring to the president’s Solana-based meme coin. “He wants to put our money in his digital wallet while he guts our financial regulators, the watchdogs that protect families from financial fraud.”
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives convened on Capitol Hill to discuss the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill that would establish rules for crypto markets, including which digital assets should be regulated as securities versus commodities. Still, the announcement of a new Trump-linked crypto offering took center stage, mirroring a hearing from a month ago.
When the House Financial Services Committee’s Chairman, French Hill (R-AR), introduced the Clarity Act less than a week ago, he said the legislation had bipartisan support in a blog post. Progressive lawmakers and experts invited to testify, however, appeared relatively focused on the growing list of Trump-backed crypto ventures, including a digital wallet unveiled on Tuesday.
Waters said that based on conservative estimates, Trump and his family’s wealth has grown by $2.9 billion “as a result of his crypto scheme,” which includes Trump-linked NFTs, a stablecoin, a decentralized finance project, and recently, a controversial dinner.
A hearing focused on digital assets was derailed last month after Democratic lawmakers staged a walkout led by Waters herself. A day before, the president had unveiled an exclusive for the top 220 holders of his meme coin, drawing accusations of pay-to-play corruption. On Wednesday, Waters skewered the dinner—and the food attendees were served.
“What did they get? Walmart steak, Costco-freezer halibut, recycled talking points, and just 20 minutes of Trump time,” she said. “I guess you get what you pay for.”
Wednesday’s debate follows the House’s passage of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century, or FIT21, a similar bill that died on the grapevine last year—despite support from 71 Democrats. Lawmakers are meanwhile mulling legislation for stablecoins.
Timothy Massad, a former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who served under President Barack Obama, echoed Waters’ criticism. Setting aside ways in which the Clarity Act could purportedly undermine existing securities laws, he said Trump’s potential to profit on the creation of crypto rules “cannot be ignored.”
“He is making billions of dollars selling meme coins and stable coins, investing in crypto exchanges and wallets and Bitcoin mining, all of which are potentially the subject of legislation,” he said “If any member of this committee did any of those things, you would all be outraged.”
Edited by James Rubin
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