Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement after the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act”, or the CLARITY Act, failed to advance in a bipartisan procedural vote in the Senate.
Ranking Member Waters said:
“No one need look any further as to why the Republicans’ crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, failed in the Senate in a bipartisan vote than the fact that it did nothing to rein in Trump’s overt, pernicious, and dangerous corruption. Until Congress passes legislation to end the President’s crypto profiteering and recoup his ill-gotten gains, any legislation in the crypto space would only serve to validate and condone his worst actions.”
Background:
Since even before the beginning of his second term, Trump has openly and corruptly used various crypto schemes to profit from the Office of the Presidency. Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures reveal that he has made $1.4 billion in that year alone, all while he took steps to ensure that his White House would control crypto-related regulations at the previously independent Federal financial regulators. Trump’s family has started businesses that now cover the entire crypto ecosystem, from Bitcoin mining to defi platforms to crypto tokens, memecoins, and stablecoins. Trump’s memecoin generated millions of dollars for him, while costing investors $3.8 billion.
During the Financial Services Committee’s consideration of legislation to create a stablecoin framework, his family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, issued its own stablecoin, USD1. This stablecoin was later used by an investment firm backed by Abu Dhabi for a $2 billion investment in the crypto exchange Binance. And days before Trump’s 2025 inauguration, a UAE-linked investment firm purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. In the latest act of corruption, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted a conditional bank charter to World Liberty Financial.
On May 21, 2025, Ranking Member Maxine Waters introduced H.R. 3573, the Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act, to block Trump’s memecoin, end his web of personal crypto schemes, and stop his crypto corruption. The bill would also prevent any future President, Vice President, Member of Congress, or their immediate families, from engaging in similar crypto crimes.