Sponsors (26)
The bill strengthens anti‑corruption and transparency by tightly restricting covered officials' crypto activities and clarifying covered assets and persons, but does so at the cost of broader compliance burdens, privacy exposure, potential chilling of crypto innovation, and limits on officials' investment freedom.
Federal officials, taxpayers, and investors: the bill tightens prohibitions and closes ownership/intermediary loopholes so covered officials cannot use office to profit from or hide digital-asset activity, improving enforcement and reducing corruption and conflicts of interest.
Investors and market participants: barring major public companies from transacting digital assets on behalf of covered officials and clarifying who is covered can increase market trust and lower the risk of insider-driven token deals.
Digital-asset holders and issuers (crypto firms, tech workers, small businesses): clearer statutory definitions of "digital asset" reduce regulatory uncertainty about which products fall under the rules.
Crypto businesses, financial institutions, and consumers: broad, detailed definitions and expanded coverage will impose substantial compliance costs and administrative burdens on firms and likely raise costs passed to customers.
Small-business owners, nonprofits, trusts and some passive investors: the expanded beneficial-ownership and control rules (including treatment of trusts/nominees and informal influence) increase compliance burdens and risk sweeping in legitimate, passive holdings.
Covered federal officials: the rules restrict their ability to hold or transact in digital assets while in office and create criminal penalties for violations, adding legal and reputational risk.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Bans Presidents, Vice Presidents, Members of Congress, and certain relatives from owning, controlling, promoting, receiving pay for, or trading digital assets (directly or indirectly) and criminalizes violations.
Official title: To establish certain digital asset prohibitions with respect to elected Government officials, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 21, 2025 by Maxine Waters · Last progress May 21, 2025
Prohibits senior federal officials and their close family members from owning, controlling, issuing, promoting, trading, or receiving compensation tied to digital assets, including stablecoins, memecoins, NFTs, DeFi products, and derivatives. It extends those restrictions to indirect ownership and use of intermediaries and applies criminal penalties modeled on existing federal ethics statutes. Defines covered officials (President, Vice President, Members of Congress and certain relatives), key crypto terms, and rules to prevent circumvention through trusts, nominees, wallets, or protocols. Requires that entities act on behalf of covered individuals comply with the same prohibitions and disclosure rules.