Summary
- Financial disclosure documents showed that US President Donald Trump earned hundreds of millions of dollars from digital-asset businesses.
- Lawmakers in both parties are calling for the CLARITY Act under discussion in Congress to include strong ethics rules barring the president, vice president and members of Congress from using digital assets for private gain while in office.
- The disclosure included income from the Trump family’s DeFi project as well as about $6 million from first lady Melania Trump’s NFT sales.
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Calls are mounting to add ethics provisions to the CLARITY Act, the US crypto market-structure bill, after disclosures showed President Donald Trump made hundreds of millions of dollars from digital-asset businesses.
The Block reported on July 1 that Trump’s 927-page financial disclosure listed substantial income from crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial, the decentralized-finance, or DeFi, project established by his family.
Congress is debating the CLARITY Act, which would establish the first comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the US. As part of bipartisan negotiations, lawmakers are also discussing ethics provisions that would bar public officials, including the president, vice president and members of Congress, from privately profiting from crypto while in office.
Democrats renewed their calls for those rules after Trump’s disclosure became public. Senator Angela Alsobrooks said legislation is urgently needed with ethics rules that apply to the president, vice president and all public officials. Americans should benefit from digital assets through a fair and honest system, she said, not through corruption or abuse of public institutions.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said lawmakers are continuing to discuss a strong bipartisan ethics package that would prevent the president, vice president and members of Congress from deriving personal financial benefit from crypto. No politician, including the president, should use public office for private gain, she added.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of Congress’s leading crypto critics, said the CLARITY Act should prevent not only the president, vice president and lawmakers, but also their families, from profiting from the crypto industry. Otherwise, she said, it would further fuel what she called Trump’s crypto corruption.
Republicans have also shown support for including ethics provisions. Senator Cynthia Lummis said the CLARITY Act would contain strong ethics rules to ensure that no elected official, regardless of party, can use a public position to profit from crypto. She urged lawmakers concerned about ethics and digital assets to work with supporters to pass the bill.
Trump rejected conflict-of-interest concerns related to the disclosure, saying his assets are held in a blind trust and that he is not directly involved in managing them or speaking with the managers.
The disclosure also included income from first lady Melania Trump’s non-fungible token, or NFT, sales. It showed she earned about $6 million from NFT sales last year.
