Democrats Introduce COIN Bill to Curb Trump’s Crypto Racket

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California introduced the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act to the US Senate on June 23. The legislation is the latest bid by Democrats to curtail the use of digital assets by senior government officials for personal gain.

The bill seeks to enact what Schiff refers to as “commonsense guardrails” around the use and ownership of digital assets by government officials and their immediate families. It would bring the rules around crypto more in line with existing rules around traditional financial products.

President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency dealings have raised significant ethical, legal and constitutional concerns over his use of the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his family. That’s why I am introducing legislation to prevent the financial exploitation of any digital assets by public officials, including the president and the First Family. We need far greater scrutiny of the president’s financial dealings, and to stop him and any other politician from profiting off of such schemes.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff

The legislation comes after a recent financial filing revealed Trump personally profited to the tune of US$57.3 million (AUD$88.4m) from his family’s DeFi project, World Liberty Financial in 2024. The profits Trump raked in from his personal memecoin, $TRUMP, weren’t revealed in the filing as it only covered 2024, but they’re reportedly in the range of US$350 million (AUD$539m).

Related: Trump Family Quietly Cuts Stake in Crypto Firm World Liberty Financial Amid Rising Scrutiny

Bill Would See Crypto Subject to Similar Rules As Other Investments

The bill seeks to make a number of substantial changes to the ethical disclosure rules currently imposed on government officials who own digital assets.

Most notably, the legislation would amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to prohibit senior government officials — including the president, vice-president and members of Congress — from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing digital assets. This prohibition would extend to officials’ immediate families and would begin 180 days before they take office and continue for two years after they leave office.

The bill would also ramp up reporting requirements, forcing officials to include digital assets in their financial disclosures. 

Other measures include:

• Requiring stablecoin issuers to certify quarterly that senior government officials are not personally profiting from their stablecoin in order to ease their path to regulatory approval;
• Beefing up conflict of interest laws to include digital assets; and 
• A requirement that the Government Accountability Office submit a report to Congress on recommendations to further bolster federal ethics laws around digital assets within 360 days.

Related: U.S. Senate Passes GENIUS Act, Advancing Stablecoin Regulation

Democrats have previously introduced several legislative measures aimed at curtailing what they say is President Trump’s growing use of digital assets to monetize the presidency. These attempts have included amendments to the GENIUS Act intended to strengthen corruption safeguards, and the Stop Trump In Crypto Act of 2025, introduced largely in response to Trump’s crypto dinner event, which Democrats criticised as blatantly corrupt.

The GENIUS Act passed the Senate on June 17, but without measures to prevent Trump from profiting off stablecoins.