Sponsors (22)
The bill strengthens anti‑corruption, market integrity, and transparency by broadly restricting covered officials and clarifying what counts as a digital asset, at the cost of increased compliance burdens, privacy intrusions, and potential chilling effects on crypto businesses and some family or small‑entity arrangements.
Federal officials and their close associates (President, VP, Members of Congress, covered employees and specified relatives) are barred from using their official position to profit from or direct digital-asset transactions, strengthening anti-corruption safeguards and reducing conflicts of interest.
Investors and market participants may gain greater confidence in crypto markets because public companies and major service providers are restricted from transacting in digital assets on behalf of covered officials, lowering the risk of insider-driven token deals and market manipulation.
The bill tightens transparency and enforcement by treating significant owners, controllers, and beneficiaries (including trusts and nominee arrangements) as subject to the prohibitions and disclosure rules, making it harder for covered individuals to hide prohibited digital-asset activity behind intermediaries.
Crypto businesses, developers, and consumers face higher compliance costs and regulatory burden because broad, detailed definitions expand the number of products and actors covered; that increases operating costs and may discourage new products or cause firms to delay launches.
Covered federal employees and their families lose some private investment opportunities in digital assets while in office and face criminal penalties for violations, creating legal and reputational risk if rules are misinterpreted or enforced aggressively.
Expanded beneficial‑ownership and indirect‑holding disclosure requirements can intrude on privacy for legitimate users (including holders of digital wallets and protocol users) by forcing more disclosures about otherwise routine or passive holdings.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits senior federal officials and certain relatives from owning, controlling, promoting, or trading a wide range of digital assets and from receiving crypto‑related compensation, with criminal penalties for 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 top U.S. officials and specified family members from owning, controlling, issuing, promoting, or trading a broad set of digital assets and products, and bars them from receiving compensation tied to digital-asset activities. It also closes common evasion routes by applying the ban to indirect ownership, trusts, intermediaries, wallets, protocols, and entities controlled or benefiting the covered person. Violations trigger criminal penalties modeled on existing federal ethics statutes.