Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is back at it. After Trump disclosed he made over $1.2 billion from crypto last year — including $635 million from his Solana meme coin alone — she’s renewing her call to ban politicians and their spouses from issuing or promoting digital assets.
“We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections,” Gillibrand said in a statement Friday.
Her proposed ban targets elected officials, the president, and their spouses. It comes as the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill she’s helped negotiate, has stalled over ethics provisions. The bill advanced through a key Senate vote earlier this year, but an agreement on ethical guardrails still hasn’t been finalized.
Galaxy researchers now put the bill’s chances of passing in 2026 at roughly 50-50. The problem isn’t content — it’s time.
Gillibrand’s broader ethics push extends beyond crypto. She’s led efforts to keep members of Congress from betting on prediction markets and has been vocal about banning stock trading for public officials while in office.
“The time to act is now,” she said. “And that must include ethics reforms that prohibit members of Congress, the president, and their spouses from cashing in on their office.”
Trump has shrugged off the conflict-of-interest questions. But with a billion dollars in crypto earnings on the record, the pressure to do something about it is only growing.
