Gillibrand Demands Ethical Clause in Crypto Bill or It Won't Pass
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated at the Consensus conference that the cryptocurrency market structure legislation will not receive enough votes to pass if it does not include ethical clauses.
She emphasized the need to prohibit members of Congress, high-ranking government officials, and the President and Vice President from profiting in the crypto industry using insider information. Currently, several Democratic senators are concerned about Trump and his family's crypto connections, with Bloomberg estimating that Trump has profited at least $1.4 billion through crypto venture capital.
The bill was previously stalled due to issues with stablecoin rewards but has reached a compromise; however, the ethical clause has become a new obstacle. Gillibrand is working with the White House and bipartisan cooperation to include consumer protection and anti-terror financing provisions, aiming for passage before the August recess.
Source: Public Information
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Kirsten Gillibrand, as a pro-crypto representative of the Senate Democrats, has previously pushed for a stablecoin regulatory framework. Her strong demand for the inclusion of ethical clauses at the Consensus conference continues her consistent stance of "compliance + transparency," similar to her repeated calls for disclosure regarding politicians' crypto trades in the Banking Committee during 2024-2025.
On the capital front, the Democrats are attempting to limit the crypto benefits of the Trump family and Republican lawmakers through ethical clauses, shifting the bill from a purely market structure focus to a comprehensive regulation that includes conflict of interest reviews. This also adds weight to consumer protection and anti-money laundering efforts, aiming to balance industry development with political risk control.
This is akin to past controversies surrounding the PELOSI Act regarding stock trading in Congress, and the current CLARITY Act's progress in the Senate. Crypto legislation is currently at a critical juncture, transitioning from technical regulation to a political and ethical game.
Essentially, this represents a regulatory change: the ethical clauses pushed by Gillibrand will restructure crypto regulation from a purely technical framework to one that includes a firewall against politicians' interests, shifting capital from a "regulatory arbitrage + insider information" model to a mechanism of public disclosure and trading prohibition. Mechanically, this reduces the risk of the bill being weaponized politically through bipartisan compromise while laying the groundwork for the long-term compliance of the crypto industry.
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Any regulation that does not close the legislators' own pockets will ultimately be captured by capital in reverse. The $1.4 billion profit is not just a number, but direct evidence of the deep binding of politics and crypto. The speed of the bill's passage often depends on whose interests are locked into the ethical clauses first.