By Sander Lutz
2 min read
Democratic senators are calling for congressional hearings into President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings after new financial disclosures revealed they generated over $1.2 billion in income for him last year.
Five Senate Democrats—Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)—said the disclosures raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, foreign influence, and Trump’s role in shaping crypto policy while profiting off the industry.
“The disclosures heighten concerns about the president pushing Congress to pass crypto legislation in favor of the very industry he’s cashing in on, the administration’s moves to exempt cryptocurrencies and service providers from existing financial services regulations, and its steps to weaken enforcement, including by disbanding the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team,” the lawmakers said in a statement Friday.
The senators who signed today’s letter are the top Democrats on the Senate Banking, Investigations, Homeland Security, Judiciary, and Finance committees, respectively. They have requested that all of those bodies hold hearings on the president’s crypto dealings.
The group specifically underscored how Trump’s disclosures showed that unknown “third-parties” own a stake in his family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial. UAE royals purchased a 49% stake in the firm last year.
The request for hearings comes as the Trump administration pushes Congress to pass the Clarity Act, a landmark bill that would formally legalize most crypto activity in the United States. The legislation has stalled over numerous issues, chief among them disagreements over ethics provisions targeting the president’s ability to issue and endorse digital assets while in office.
Trump’s financial disclosure report, released last month, showed he earned more than $1.2 billion from crypto-related ventures, including more than $635 million tied to his Trump meme coin and over $588 million from token sales connected to World Liberty Financial. The disclosures also showed Trump holds tens of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The Clarity Act advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee in May after two Democrats split from their party to support moving the bill forward—though the lawmakers warned a deal on ethics language remained necessary to earn their votes on the Senate floor.
The legislation’s supporters argue it needs to clear Congress by August to become law this year, given the looming November midterm elections.
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