President Trump just watched his biggest crypto push collapse because of his own wallet. On Thursday, the Senate rejected the GENIUS Act, a bill meant to set federal rules for stablecoins.
The vote ended 48-49, with three senators missing. And no, it wasn’t party politics that killed the bill—it was Trump’s personal coin empire blowing everything up from the inside.
This should’ve been one of the rare moments where Democrats and Republicans found common ground. Lawmakers had been warming up to the idea of regulating stablecoins, especially after years of gridlock under Biden.
But just as the finish line got close, Trump’s $TRUMP meme coin, his wife’s $MELANIA coin, and a family-run crypto company pulled the whole thing down.
Trump’s own crypto ventures kill his legislation
Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said what everyone else was thinking: “Currently, people who wish to cultivate influence with the president can enrich him personally by buying cryptocurrency he owns or controls.” He called the setup “a profoundly corrupt scheme,” adding that it threatens national security and tears down public trust.
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware said she couldn’t vote yes because of “ongoing self-dealing and financial conflicts of interest being carried out by the Trump family.” That includes the $TRUMP coin’s recent promo: offering dinner and a White House tour to its biggest holders.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, from Connecticut, slammed it as a “pay-for-play scheme” and demanded a full investigation. He wants financial records from World Liberty Financial, a Trump-linked crypto company launched last year. That company just rolled out its own stablecoin, conveniently while the White House pushed for looser rules around the entire space.
Then came the foreign angle. Reports say that Abu Dhabi-based MGX is using Trump’s stablecoin to fund a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. That kind of international deal tied directly to a sitting US president is what got a chunk of Senate Democrats spooked.
Four of them had supported the GENIUS Act in committee. But over the weekend, they pulled their support, calling for tougher language around money laundering, foreign actors, and security risks.
Crypto industry leaders slam Trump’s interference
The political disaster doesn’t stop at Congress. Earlier this week, Democrats also introduced the End Crypto Corruption Act, a new bill designed to stop elected officials, their top staff, and family members from launching or promoting any kind of crypto.
It was led by Merkley and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. If it passes, it would ban Trump and his family from running the kinds of crypto projects they’ve been cashing in on since January.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, who helped draft the original GENIUS Act, turned away from the bill too. She said there were still “a number of outstanding issues” to fix before the bill could go to the floor.
“I believe it is essential to the future of the US economy and to everyday Americans that we enact strict stablecoin regulations and consumer protections where none currently exist,” she said.
Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, had been ready to support the legislation. But he said there wasn’t enough time left to negotiate. “Without more time to at least finish the bill, there was no true bipartisan path forward,” he posted on X.
Meanwhile, fintech investors who had rallied behind Trump’s return to office are now watching their hopes burn.
Ryan Gilbert, founder of Launchpad Capital, said the situation is “unfortunate” and urged the administration to stop mixing business and policy. “I would hope that everybody in the administration, including the president, gets out of the way of good policy,” Gilbert said.
At a press briefing on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that “the president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws.” She added, “The president is a successful businessman, and I think it’s one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to this office.”
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