President Trump’s recent cryptocurrency dealings are casting a shadow over efforts to pass legislation for the industry

The showdown over the stablecoin bill comes as the Trump family's growing portfolio of crypto projects fuel the legislation's opponents

President Trump’s recent cryptocurrency dealings are casting a shadow over efforts to pass legislation for the industry at a key moment, as the Senate gears up to vote on a stablecoin bill Thursday.

Senate leadership is preparing to hold a vote on the GENIUS Act, which would create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. However, a contingent of crypto-friendly Democrats have threatened to vote it down, accusing Republicans of prematurely cutting off negotiations over the bipartisan bill.

The showdown over the stablecoin bill comes as the Trump family’s growing portfolio of crypto projects fueled the legislation’s opponents, who argue it will allow the president and his family to profit from the industry.

Crypto investors and advocates who were elated by Trump’s moves to bolster the industry are now growing concerned.

“Trump’s not helping himself,” said Nic Carter, a founding partner at crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, adding, “Everyone I know in crypto is very frustrated by this. It’s like a completely unnecessary own goal.”

Trump’s close ties to the crypto industry have raised concerns since before he took office. As the president embraced digital assets on the campaign trail last fall, he and his sons launched their own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. And shortly before his inauguration, the president and first lady Melania Trump launched meme coins.

Both World Liberty Financial and the president’s meme coin have drawn scrutiny once again in recent weeks.

Trump is set to attend a dinner with the top investors in his meme coin later this month. The announcement in April, which encouraged participants to “hold as much $TRUMP as you can,” caused the price of the token to spike 60 percent.

World Liberty Financial also announced last week that Emirati firm MGX would be using the company’s brand-new stablecoin to conduct a $2 billion transaction with crypto exchange Binance.

Democrats have decried the moves as efforts by the president and his family to enrich themselves, calling for ethics investigations into both the meme coin dinner and the World Liberty Financial.

They argue that the meme coin and stablecoin can be used by Trump to improperly profit off his office and by outside actors, including foreign actors, to attempt to buy influence with the president.

The Trump family owns a 60 percent stake in World Liberty Financial, and a company affiliated with the family receives 75 percent of the revenue collected from its coin sales.

The White House has previously downplayed concerns about potential conflicts of interest between Trump and his family crypto businesses, saying the president uses a blind trust to avoid improprieties.

The growing scrutiny surrounding the president and his family’s crypto dealings is threatening to upend his administration’s efforts to pass long sought legislation providing the industry with greater regulatory clarity.

The administration and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said they hope to pass both stablecoin and market structure legislation by August.

Stablecoin legislation appeared to be sailing forward, with versions passing out of both the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee earlier this year.

However, progress came to a screeching halt last week. After Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) moved Thursday to expedite a vote on the GENIUS Act, nine Democrats who had previously backed the upper chamber’s stablecoin bill pulled their support.

The group, which included four senators who voted to advance the bill out of committee in March, said Saturday that the floor text put forward by Republicans lacked sufficiently strong provisions on anti-money laundering and national security, among other issues.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee, accused Republicans of attempting to force through the legislation without further discussion.

“All of a sudden, the language changed. They backtracked on some of the stuff we had already approved. They weren’t even moving forward with further legislation. And then they announced the date of the first vote.” Gallego said during an interview with MeidasTouch.

“I think the purpose of that was really to put Democrats in a bad position and try to force us to vote for it. You can’t throw us in the corner and say, ‘Hey, deal with it.’ And you can’t try to f— us and then say like, ‘Oh, come on.’ Especially when you still need our votes no matter what.”

Thune signaled an openness to making changes sought by Democrats on Tuesday but also appeared intent on moving the GENIUS Act forward despite recent pushback. He highlighted the months-long process that had gone into the legislation.

“My question is — when will the Democrats take yes for an answer?” Thune said at a press conference. “If they have other suggestions and things that they want incorporated into the draft, we are certainly welcome to taking a look at and working with them on that. But we do need to start moving forward.”

“This is a piece of legislation that has broad bipartisan support. I think if we get it on the