Bakari Sellers: Why Congress Must Stop Trump From Cashing in on Crypto

There is no good reason for any Democrat in the United States Senate to hand Donald Trump a landmark crypto bill that lines his pockets while leaving everyday Americans exposed. And yet, here we are.

The CLARITY Act, which has cleared the Senate Banking Committee and is hurtling toward a floor vote with the White House pushing for passage by July 4th, calling it “a tremendous Birthday present for America,” would create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency market structure. Sounds reasonable enough. But strip away the technical legislative language and you’re left with an uncomfortable truth: without strong ethics provisions, this bill is a gift to just one man and his family — Donald Trump.

According to an August 2025 investigation by the anti-corruption group Accountable.US, Donald Trump’s net worth could be roughly $15.9 billion, with about $11.6 billion in crypto assets that haven’t even been fully counted. He has issued his own stablecoin and his own memecoin. He owns a bitcoin mining company. His family controls a sprawling crypto portfolio. And he and his congressional allies are writing the rules that govern it all.

He isn’t even trying to hide it.

The Trump family’s crypto empire is not some little side hustle. National security experts raised the alarm when sensitive AI technology was transferred to the UAE shortly after Emirati investors quietly bought a $500 million stake in the President’s cryptocurrency. Foreign governments purchasing influence through a President’s personal financial holdings is not a regulatory question; it’s a national security crisis.

When the Clarity Act was moving through the Banking Committee, Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced an ethics amendment that would have banned public officials, including the President, their spouses, and their families, from issuing, sponsoring, or profiting from crypto tokens. Every single Democrat voted for it. Every single Republican voted against it. The question isn’t whether Democrats know what’s right. The question is whether seven of them are going to cave anyway. I’m here to say: don’t.

The midterms are coming. Democrats are already building a closing argument around economic fairness, democratic accountability, and a simple truth that no President should be able to use the Oval Office as a cash register. That’s a persuasive argument, unless Democrats torpedo it by giving Trump exactly what he wants.

A stronger Democratic caucus after those elections will have real negotiating power: the ability to insist on ethics provisions that mean something, apply the same anti-money laundering standards to crypto that we already require of traditional banks, and close the loopholes that cartels, terrorist organizations, and human traffickers have exploited in digital asset markets. The warnings from law enforcement have been loud and they have been specific: prosecutors and sheriffs are saying this bill creates exemptions that sophisticated criminals will exploit.

Why would any Democrat give up the leverage to fix that, in exchange for a bill that doesn’t even do what it needs to do?

Here is what Democratic Senators need to understand: caving on this bill doesn’t just help Trump on crypto. It unravels your entire argument about his corruption. Democrats are hammering the administration over the $1.776 billion slush fund that will flow to January 6ers and pushing to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks while making laws that affect them. These are powerful arguments about who Washington is working for, and every one of them is badly weakened the moment Democratic Senators vote to create a crypto framework that leaves the door wide open for presidential self-dealing.

Voters are not stupid. They measure backbone by what you do under pressure, not what you say in press releases. Passing this bill without ethics provisions is not a compromise. It is a surrender.

The ask is not complicated. Any crypto legislation that reaches the President’s desk must include a ban on elected and appointed officials, including the President, Vice President, and their families, from issuing, sponsoring, promoting, or profiting from cryptocurrency products and services while in office. No carve-outs.

If the bill has that provision, it’s worth a real conversation. If it doesn’t, vote no.

The winning message writes itself: “Democrats Refuse to Let the President Profit from Laws He Signs.” That resonates in every zip code in America where regular people are watching a President use the highest office in the land to make himself richer. In a few months, after the midterms, Democrats will have more power and more leverage to insist on a bill that actually protects the public. There is no good reason — none — to throw that away today.

Hold the line.