House Financial Services Committee's Maxine Waters will block efforts to hold a joint hearing on market structure discussion draft bill

Under House rules, all participants in a joint hearing need to agree to proceed. Waters will object to the joint hearing and prevent it from proceeding as planned

House Democrats are planning to hold their own probe into President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency ties, a Democratic staffer confirmed to CoinDesk.

The staffer said on Monday that the probe would focus on Trump's different ties to crypto firms, including USD stablecoin issuer World Liberty Financial. The probe would also include an investigation into the administration's handling of crypto theft and scams.

The Democratic staffer added that the probe would be part of a larger Democratic-led effort to create a bipartisan bill reforming financial markets, an effort that began last year and stalled out in the Senate.

The Financial Services and Agriculture Committees announced they would host a joint hearing on market structure issues last week, and unveiled the first text addressing the issue — including how the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission would oversee crypto — earlier Monday.

The joint hearing is set to take place at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday. However, under House rules, all participants in a joint hearing need to agree to proceed. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, will object to the joint hearing and prevent it from proceeding as planned, a Democratic staffer told CoinDesk.

The staffer said that Munger, a Democrat, would not approve the joint hearing because she is concerned about Trump's involvement in the cryptocurrency markets.

"Ranking Member Maxine Waters has been incredibly vocal about Trump's crypto crimes and has pushed Republicans to investigate these crimes," the staffer said. "Ahead of tomorrow's hearing, Ranking Member Waters gave Chairman Hill a phone call and told him she would not approve this hearing unless Republicans included provisions in their legislation to block Trump from further profiting from crypto off the backs of investors."

Earlier this year, Waters expressed concern over reports that Trump was planning to launch his own cryptocurrency, though White House officials later denied those reports.

In recent days, Trump announced he would host a dinner for the 220 parties holding the most TRUMP memecoins. One of his children, Eric Trump, announced just last week that Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX would use World Liberty Financial's USD stablecoin to close its investment in Binance. Freight Technologies, a publicly traded logistics firm, also said last week that it would buy $20 million in TRUMP coins with the explicit purpose of trying to influence trade policy.

The Democratic staffer told CoinDesk that Maxine Waters and other Democrats on the Financial Services Committee would hold their own hearing investigating Trump's different crypto ties, which would include World Liberty Financial.

A spokesperson for the Financial Services Committee's chair, French Hill (R-Kan.), said in a statement that, "Since the last Congress, we’ve had productive bipartisan, bicameral discussions on market structure legislation. We encourage the Ranking Member to attend tomorrow’s hearing to express her views and reconsider her decision to object."

The spokesperson added that, "The bipartisan leadership of the House Financial Services and Agriculture Committees will be holding a joint hearing tomorrow morning to continue Congress's work on legislation reforming financial markets and institutions. Both committee chairs and ranking members have been invited to participate."

The move comes as Democrats in the Senate are also planning to launch their own probe into cryptocurrency, according to a report by Politico.

The report said that the Democrats, who control the majority in the Senate, are planning to hold hearings on cryptocurrency and other issues related to the financial markets.

The Democrats are particularly interested in investigating reports that Trump and his family members may have engaged in insider trading in cryptocurrency, the report said.

The probe would be part of a larger Democratic-led effort to create a bipartisan bill reforming financial markets, an effort that began last year and stalled out in the Senate.

The bipartisan bill, which was sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), would have created a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The bill would also have imposed new restrictions on hedge funds and other private equity firms.

However, the bill was ultimately scuttled by Senate Republicans, who objected to the inclusion of provisions that would have limited the president's authority to intervene in trade disputes.

The Democrats are now planning to launch their own probe into cryptocurrency and other issues related to the financial markets, the report said.

The probe would be part of a larger Democratic-led effort to create a bipartisan bill reforming financial markets, an effort that began last year and stalled out in the Senate.

The bipartisan bill, which was sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), would have created a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The bill would also have imposed new restrictions on hedge funds and other private equity firms.

However, the bill was ultimately scuttled by Senate Republicans, who objected to the inclusion of provisions that would have limited the president's authority to intervene in trade disputes.

The Democrats are hoping to build bipartisan support for