Efforts to pass crypto legislation in the US Senate face mounting resistance amid growing ethical concerns around US President Donald Trump’s ties to crypto.
In a May 5 letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley said that Trump and his family stand to personally profit from an investment involving UAE state-backed firm MGX, crypto exchange Binance and World Liberty Financial (WLFI).
The senators called for an urgent probe, warning the deal may violate the US Constitution’s Emoluments Clause and federal bribery statutes.
At the center of the controversy is WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin, reportedly chosen for a $2 billion investment MGX plans to make into Binance.
The senators said the transaction amounts to a potential backdoor for foreign influence and self-enrichment, with Trump’s allies allegedly set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars:
“This deal raises the troubling prospect that the Trump and Witkoff families could expand the use of their stablecoin as an avenue to profit from foreign corruption.”
Further complicating ethics concerns, Trump hosted a $1.5 million-per-plate dinner on May 5 at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. The event came just days after hosting a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser for the MAGA super PAC.
He also plans to hold a gala dinner with major Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin holders on May 22, despite multiple US lawmakers expressing concerns.
The Trump family’s controversial $2 billion crypto deal comes as the Senate prepares to vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act and other crypto-related bills.
The fallout is already being felt in Congress. Some Democratic lawmakers are pushing for additional hearings before advancing any legislation, while others question whether Trump’s personal stake in digital assets is undermining bipartisan support for crypto regulation.
On May 5, Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled a willingness to amend the GOP-backed stablecoin legislation to pass the bill in the coming weeks.
Speaking to reporters, Thune said changes can be made on the floor and that he is waiting to hear what Democrats are asking for, per a report from Politico.
Internal GOP challenges also remain, with Senator Rand Paul expressing uncertainty about backing the bill, according to the report.
The stalling isn’t limited to the Senate. House Financial Services Committee ranking member Representative Maxine Waters plans to block a Republican-led event discussing digital assets on May 6.
The hearing, “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets,” will discuss a new crypto markets draft discussion paper pitched by the House agricultural and financial services committee chairs, Representatives Glenn Thompson and French Hill, respectively.
Prominent crypto figures are speaking out as political resistance threatens to derail stablecoin legislation in the Senate.
“Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer haven’t learned their lesson,” Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, posted on X.
“If they want Democrats to continue losing elections, they will continue standing in front of crypto legislation like the stablecoin bill which they are stalling out in the Senate.”
Kemi Badenoch will promise to introduce a “golden rule” to get the deficit down and “get our economy back on track” if the Tories win the next election.
During her keynote speech at the end of the Conservative Party’s conference on Wednesday, the Tory leader will say her party is the only party “who can be trusted to meet the test of our generation”.
“We are the only party with a plan to get our economy back on trust,” she is expected to say.
Ms Badenoch will tell Tory members she would introduce a “golden economic rule” to ensure for every pound saved, half or more will go to reduce the deficit and half will go towards tax cuts or spending to boost the economy.
She will accuse Chancellor Rachel Reeves of doubling the deficit “with her borrowing and tax doom loop” over the next decade.
“It’s not sustainable, and it’s not fair,” she will say.
“It is stealing from our children and grandchildren, and Conservatives will put a stop to it.”
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Why Kemi Badenoch ‘lacked confidence’
Where will the cuts fall?
Ms Badenoch will say the Tories have already identified £47bn in savings, including £23bn from welfare, £8bn from the civil service and £7bn from the overseas aid budget.
She will also announce plans to reform the higher education sector, double apprenticeship funding, and back high-value courses for young people.
She will pledge to end “debt trap” degrees, which she will say offer poor value to students and taxpayers, and instead fund “worthwhile courses”.
This will lead to savings, she will say, to pay for the doubling of apprenticeship funding, in addition to the employers’ apprenticeship levy funds currently paid by UK employers with a payroll of more than £3m.
“This can’t be right – young people in Britain deserve a better deal, which is why the Conservatives are throwing out the status quo,” she is expected to say.
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Empty seats at Tory party conference
The plan would see more apprenticeships for people aged 18-21, while any remaining funding would be used to support “high-quality” courses at research-intensive British universities.
Dubai’s regulator announced it had issued financial penalties against 19 companies related to digital asset activities amid approval for BitGo’s MENA entity.
Her personal poll rating, minus 47, is worse than the lowest ebb of Iain Duncan Smith’s fated leadership and worse than when Boris Johnson resigned.
To rub salt into the wounds, a Sky News/YouGov poll this week found that the majority of Tory members think Robert Jenrick should be the leader, while half don’t think she should lead them into the next general election.
Being leader of the Opposition is often described as the hardest job in politics, but for Badenoch, with Reform stealing the march as the party of the right, it looks pretty much impossible.
For someone who needs to try to win people over, Badenoch has a curious style. She likes to be known as a leader who isn’t afraid of a fight and, at times, she approached our interview at the Conservative Party conference as if she was positively looking for one.
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A few times in our interview when I asked her a question she didn’t like, or didn’t want to answer (it is my job to ask all politicians hard questions), she seemed tetchy.
And when I deigned to ask her whether she admired Nigel Farage, she criticised me for asking the question. She asked why I was not asking her if I admire Sir Keir Starmer or Sir Ed Davey.
Her approach surprised me, as I had asked the prime minister exactly the same question a week before. He’d answered it directly, without arguing over why I had asked it: “I think he is a formidable politician,” said Sir Keir.
Badenoch told me she didn’t understand the question, and then told me she wasn’t interested in talking about him. It made for an awkward, ill-tempered exchange.
The facts remain that Farage is topping the polls, helped by Labour’s collapsing support and the Conservatives’ deep unpopularity.
And in the run-up to our interview, Reform drip-fed the news that 20 Tory councillors were defecting to Farage’s party.
There is open talk in Badenoch’s party about whether the Tories will need to try to come to some sort of agreement with Reform at the next election to try to see off Labour and ‘progressive parties’.
Farage says absolutely not, as does Badenoch – but many in her party do not think she has that luxury.
Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, told GB Newshe’ll lose his seat unless the two sides “work together” and said the right must unite to defeat the left. Arch-rival Robert Jenrick pointedly refuses to rule it out, saying only it’s “not the priority”. Meanwhile, party members support an electoral pact by two to one, according to our Sky News poll.
On the matter of whether these MPs, and party members, have a point, Badenoch bristled: “It is important that people know what we stand for. Robert Jenrick is not the leader of the Conservative Party, neither is Andrew Rossindell. I am the leader of the party and we are not having a coalition or a pact with Reform.”
When I ask colleagues if they think Badenoch is too aloof, too argumentative, too abrasive to lead this rebuild, the popular refrain for her supporters is that she is “a work in progress” and that it would be madness to change the leader again.
The question is, will she be given the time to develop? The plot to oust her is active and much of the chatter around this conference is whether she might be challenged before or after the May local elections.
There are some colleagues who believe it is better to give her more time to turn things around and, if May is truly dreadful and the party goes further backwards, remove her then.
Ahead of conference, when asked by Tim Shipman of the Spectator whether she would resign if the Conservatives go backwards in May, she said rather cryptically “ask me after the locals”.
When I asked Badenoch why she said that she replied, “let’s see what the election result is about”.
When I explained that it sounded rather like she might throw in the towel after next May and so was seeking clarification, she told me that I was asking irrelevant questions.
“Your viewers want to know how their lives are going to be better. Not be inside the Westminster bubble politics of who’s up, who’s down… It’s part of the reason why the country is in this mess. Perhaps if people had scrutinised Labour’s policies instead of looking at just poll ratings, they would be running the country better.”
But Tories are looking at poll ratings and there is a view from some in the party that if the Tories wait until another drubbing in the May local, Scottish and Welsh elections, there might not be much of a party apparatus left to rebuild from.
Image: More than half of Tory members want pact with Reform
In short, there is not a settled view on when a challenge might come, but with the party in the position it is in, talk of a challenge will not go away.
Badenoch wants to make the case that her “authentic conservatism” is worth sticking with and that the policies the Conservatives are announcing will give them a pathway back.
On borders, the Tories are trying to neutralise Reform with a very similar offer. On the economy and welfare cuts, they hope they can beat Labour and Reform.
But really, the question about this party and this leader is about relevance. The prime minister didn’t even bother to name check Badenoch in his conference speech, while Davey trained his guns on Farage rather than his traditional Tory rival.
Badenoch may not like being asked about Reform, might – in her words – not be interested in Reform, but her former voters, and the country, are. The enormous challenge for her in the coming months is to see if she can get them to look at her.