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Crypto Critic Elizabeth Warren Probes Trump's Meme Coin Venture
Senator Warren and a member of the House commerce panel are pressing for a review of Trump's effort to make "extraordinary profits off his presidency."
Jan 23, 2025, 10:15 p.m.
What to know:
- Senator Elizabeth Warren — crypto's staunch critic in the Senate — is asking federal agencies to review whether President Donald Trump's new crypto token is violating ethics or regulatory standards.
- Warren and a member of the House of Representatives, Jake Auchincloss, penned a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and some regulatory agencies, requesting that they take a look.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling foul on President Donald Trump's meme coin, pressing for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and financial regulatory agencies to dig into the ethical and regulatory details around the $TRUMP token.
Warren, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee that oversees U.S. financial regulators, says the assets, including First Lady Melania Trump's own eponymous meme coin, pose conflict-of-interest hazards for the president and highlight the most destructive and volatile corner of the crypto sector.
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"Nearly overnight, President Trump and his wife’s net worth skyrocketed to $58 billion," Warren wrote in the letter alongside Representative Jake Auchincloss, a fellow Massachusetts Democrat who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "Anyone, including the leaders of hostile nations, can covertly buy these coins, raising the specter of uninhibited and untraceable foreign influence over the President of the United States, all while President Trump’s supporters are left to shoulder the risk of investing in $TRUMP and $MELANIA."
Launched the Friday before his inauguration this week, Trump's token — for which his company retains some 80% of the coins in circulation — rose rapidly from about $3 last week to almost $37 on Thursday. It's opened a possibility for Trump to make "extraordinary profits off his presidency," the lawmakers noted.
The letter was sent to the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — each of which now has a new Trump pick at the helm. Warren and Auchincloss raised the point that Trump is in charge of appointing the permanent heads of these regulatory agencies that will make decisions affecting the future of his crypto tokens.
None of the three federal agencies immediately responded to CoinDesk's requests for comment on the letter, or whether they're reviewing the tokens in any other capacity.
"$TRUMP and $MELANIA present grave risks to President Trump’s ability to impartially govern our nation — and to investors in these coins, who may be made victims of a rug pull scheme orchestrated by the Trump family," Warren's letter concluded.
The lawmakers join other Democrats who have similarly raised concerns about Trump issuing these assets right before taking office. Representative Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called for an investigation in a letter sent to his committee's Republican chairman one day into Trump's new term, additionally raising issues with World Liberty Financial and its ties to Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun. And Representative Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, also shared her alarm about Trump's coin.
Read More: House Dems Warn of Corruption in Trump's Crypto Business Moves
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