Sen. Warren Keeps Pressure on Trump Crypto Ties as Market Structure Bill Negotiated

U.S. senators are in close negotiations on the language to set up regulated crypto markets, and while they debate the details, Senator Elizabeth Warren is seeking to continue illuminating President Donald Trump's personal crypto ties.

The Massachusetts lawmaker, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and a frequent ally, Senator Jack Reed, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting information on reports that Trump-linked World Liberty Financial Inc. sold tokens to "North Korea, Russia and other illicit actors."

Such sales, highlighted by Accountable.us, a nonprofit group investigating Washington influence, "raise serious questions about WLF’s due diligence policies or procedures, including whether its tokens or other products enable sanctions evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing," the senators wrote.

Warren and some other Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives have targeted the president's business connections with WLFI, saying they pose a significant conflict of interest as his administration seeks crypto-friendly policies that will directly benefit Trump's financial interests.

Read More: Crypto Critic Elizabeth Warren Probes Trump's Meme Coin Venture

A protracted resistance from the ranking member of one of the two committees that need to pass crypto legislation could normally spell doom for a legislative effort. However, the Democrats in the Senate Banking Committee have demonstrated a split over crypto efforts, with Warren maintaining her stance that the industry is overly risky and the president dangerously conflicted while other members continue to negotiate legislative language.

Advocates for the market structure bill still hope it sees a markup in that committee before the end of the year, though it's uncertain whether the other panel — the Senate Agriculture Committee — will be able to follow suit with its draft bill that still features some significant gaps. Crypto lobbyists have said in recent days that the closed-door talks among senators are unusually secretive, giving them some hope that serious language negotiations may be happening.

While many Democrats have routinely demanded that the president and other senior government officials should be explicitly banned from maintaining business ties to crypto operations, Republican lawmakers have never conceded that point in their legislative drafts.

Read More: State of Crypto: What's In the New Crypto Market Structure Draft?