Donald Trump's push to ease oversight of the cryptocurrency industry

Watchdog groups, congressional Democrats and some Republicans have levelled a firestorm of criticism at Trump for hawking his own memecoin $Trump

The watchdog groups and congressional Democrats have slammed the president over his handling of the cryptocurrency industry, noting that he is sharply easing oversight of the crypto businesses while he and his sons have quickly expanded crypto ventures that have reaped billions of dollars from investors including foreign ones.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

Aides to the Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters declined to comment.

The Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial that launched last fall, which his two oldest sons have promoted hard, was tapped this month to play a key part in a $2bn investment deal by an Abu Dhabi financial fund in the crypto exchange Binance which in 2023 pleaded guilty to US money laundering and other violations.

The new WLF deal was announced at an Abu Dhabi crypto conference that drew Eric Trump two weeks before Trump’s mid-May visit to the United Arab Emirates capital, sparking other concerns of improper foreign influence and ethics issues.

Trump’s ardent pursuit of crypto fortunes was highlighted in a report last month from the watchdog group State Democracy Defenders Fund that estimated his crypto ventures as of mid-March to be worth about $2.9bn. That is a striking sum since Trump’s crypto ventures are less than a year old.

Senate Democrats led by Jeff Merkley of Oregon and the minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, introduced a bill this month that has garnered sizable Democratic backing to block Trump from using his office to benefit his crypto businesses.

Watchdogs say Trump is exploiting his office for personal gain in unprecedented and dangerous ways.

“There is the appearance if not the reality of corruption in the upcoming dinner with Trump on the 22nd at his Virginia golf club for the 220 biggest Trump meme coin buyers and the private reception he’s promised for the top 25 buyers, plus the separate $2bn deal between World Liberty Financial and the Abu Dhabi investment vehicle,” said Richard Painter, a former White House ethics adviser to President George W Bush who co authored the Democracy Defenders Fund report.

Other experts are equally troubled by Trump’s manifest conflicts.

“Trump is marketing access to himself as a way to profit his memecoin,” said the Columbia Law professor Richard Briffault, an expert on government ethics. Briffault added: “People are paying to meet Trump and he’s the regulator in chief. It’s doubly corrupt. This is unprecedented. I don’t think there’s been anything like this in American history.”

Such concerns were fueled when Trump quickly chose crypto industry allies to run the Securities and Exchange Commission and as his “czar” for crypto and AI. Among other moves, the SEC has dropped or put on hold investigations and prosecutions of over a dozen crypto firms.

Fears of possible corruption have also focused on Chinese born Justin Sun, the biggest investor in Trump’s crypto ventures. Sun bought about $20m of $Trump to become its top purchaser before the dinner on the 22nd which he attended. Sun previously invested at least $75m in World Liberty Financial to become its lead investor and an adviser.

Sun may also be benefiting from the SEC’s laxer oversight. Sun was sued by the SEC in 2023 for fraudulent market manipulation and other allegations of misconduct involving three other crypto enterprises of his, including the Tron Foundation.

As the SEC eased its crypto oversight, the agency earlier this year paused its case against Sun, sparking concerns that Trump’s financial ties to Sun might have influenced the agency’s decision, a matter that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and the Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters of California raised in a letter to the SEC last month.

The SEC has reportedly been holding talks with Sun about settling the charges, and the agency’s chairman told a congressional hearing on 20 May that he knew nothing about Sun’s case.

Other warnings about Trump’s crypto dealings have also been fueled by recent scandals that have plagued crypto businesses, many of which are known for their opaque operations and some illicit dealings including ones tied to North Korean hackers that helped fund the country’s nuclear and military programs.

Crypto critics were dismayed at a justice department memo in April announcing the closure of a national cryptocurrency enforcement team that was established in 2022, which had brought some major crypto cases against North Korean hackers and other crypto criminals.

The memo stressed that the justice department was not a “digital assets regulator” and in a political twist lambasted the Biden administration for its “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution”. The memo noted that a January pro-crypto Trump executive order spurred its decision.

For their part, Trump, his family and White House press statements have dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest or ethical improprieties with Trump engaging in his crypto business while in office.

The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters before the dinner that Trump was attending it in his “personal time” and it was not a White House event, but declined to release names of the