are meme coins One minute you’re getting rich I’m
rich I’m rich One minute you’re getting wrecked I’m poor And the next minute you’re dining with
the president Yep If you’re a top holder of the Trump memecoin you might just snag an invite to
meet the man himself Only in crypto a folks But not everyone is thrilled Many US politicians
are raising eyebrows at Trump’s crypto ties flagging potential conflicts of interest And
these concerns are rippling through crypto legislation threatening to stall its progress So
today we’ll explore how Trump’s crypto involvement could shake up crypto regulations and what
could happen next My name is Guy Stay tuned So if you cast your mind back to January you
might recall that the then newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive
order to prohibit the creation of a central bank digital currency or CBDC On top of this the
executive order also established a crypto working group to explore federal regulations for stable
coins Since then there have been many steps taken towards creating clear stable coin legislation
in the US In early February Senator Bill Haggedy introduced the Guiding and Establishing National
Innovation for US Stable Coins Act an act that uses the acronym Genius which is you know genius
Anyway the proposal gained immediate support from pro- crypto senators from both sides of the aisle
including Democrats like Kirsten Gillibrand and Republicans like Cynthia Lumis The Genius Act
seeks to establish a clear regulatory framework for stable coins defining them as digital assets
pegged to the US dollar The act proposes that issuers of stable coins with a market cap below
$10 billion be regulated at the state level while those exceeding $10 billion fall under a federal
regulatory structure akin to that of the Federal Reserve Note that at the time of shooting the
only stable coins surpassing the $10 billion threshold are Tether’s USDT and Circles USDC
Anyway just days after the Genius Act was tabled US representatives in the House released a draft
for the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy Act of 2025 An act
that just so happens to use the acronym stable Hm Somebody’s clearly been making sure US politicians
have had their Rice Krispies So what is the Stable Act well in short the Stable Act aims to impose a
2-year ban on the creation of quote endogenously collateralized stable coins which is a fancy way
of saying stable coins backed by other self-issued cryptocurrencies and also proposed that the US
Treasury Department should carry out a study on stable coins But back to the Genius Act Now in
March the Genius Act was updated with a load of changes ahead of a vote from the Senate Banking
Committee and the bill saw bipartisan discussion Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrands said that
quote “The updated version of the Genius Act makes significant improvements to a number of important
provisions including consumer protections authorized stable coin issuers risk mitigation
state pathways insolveny transparency and more The bill was then advanced in the Senate just a
few days later with bipartisan support although it did face some opposition from Democrats
Unsurprisingly most of this opposition came from Senator Elizabeth Warren who said that the bill
will quote supercharge the financing of terrorism among other concerns Notably Warren also suggested
a number of amendments to the bill including one proposal to limit stable coin issuance to banking
institutions Now this is crazy because it would essentially hijack the innovation of stable
coins to gain shortcut access to a de facto central bank digital currency or CBDC Thankfully
none of the amendments suggested by Warren made it into the bill In any case the fact that the
Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill was a huge deal because it marked the first step
towards comprehensive crypto legislation Things then got even more bullish in early April when
the SEC declared that dollarbacked stable coins are not securities and are therefore exempt from
reporting requirements Then at the end of April it was reported that US Senate Majority Leader John
Ton advised Republican lawmakers that the Genius Act would likely see a vote by the 26th of May
in time for the Memorial Day holiday As you’ll soon see though this didn’t exactly go to plan
Oh and by the way if you’re enjoying the video wouldn’t be crypto without a bit of controversy
would it well as you can imagine the proposed regulations faced their fair share of scrutiny
from opposing politicians for multiple reasons For instance Senator Gillibrand who you’ll recall
backed the Genius Act also proposed restrictions on stable coin issuers offering yieldbearing
stable coins as this would hurt legacy finance That’s because there would be no need to deposit
funds into a bank if users could earn a yield elsewhere which would impact the financial system
and be especially bad for smaller banks But that’s not all Many politicians have also raised concerns
around President Trump’s conflicts of interest in regard to crypto At a recent meeting of the House
Financial Services Committee Representative Maxine Waters used her opening statement to criticize
Trump’s business and ethical entanglements with the crypto industry Waters said that Trump is
leveraging his unique position as president to profit from multiple crypto schemes including
the launch of the USD1 stable coin which was created by World Liberty Financial As such she
described the proposed stable coin bill as setting a dangerous precedent while validating the efforts
of Trump and his associates to enrich themselves Waters added that quote Trump likely wants
the entire government to use stable coins from payments made by the Department of Housing
and Urban Development to Social Security payments to paying taxes And which coin do you think Trump
would replace the dollar with his own of course And she’s not alone in having doubts Committee
Chair French Hill said that crypto legislation is unusually complex due to the Trump family’s
involvement with the industry Now if you watched our video about Trump’s own DeFi protocol World
Liberty Financial you’ll know that President Trump’s sons Eric Donald Jr and Baron are all
listed as quote three ambassadors for the platform You can learn more about World Liberty Financial
by checking out the video right over here by the way Now towards the end of April things got really
heated when Trump announced a private dinner for the top 220 holders of his Trump memecoin
A leaderboard was posted on the memecoin’s official website and the price of Trump rallied
65% on the day Notably the website explains that applicants quote cannot be from a KYC watch list
country and can’t bring extra guests As you can probably imagine this memecoin dinner party idea
didn’t exactly go down well with other politicians In fact even pro- crypto Republicans voiced
their concerns Most notably Cynthia Lumis who is famously so pro- crypto that she’s been dubbed
the Senate’s queen of crypto Lumis said that the decision to essentially allow people to pay for
access to Trump and the White House gave her pause Republican Senator Lisa Macowski shared this
view saying quote “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to charge people to come into
the capital and take a tour.” However despite the controversy Trump’s memecoin dinner party is still
set to go ahead coincidentally on the very day the 22nd of May that I’m shooting this video which
also happens to be Bitcoin pizza day by the way So by the time you see this the party will have
already happened Well hello there I know you’re Now Trump’s memecoin dinner plans have caused
some serious backlash with some even calling for his impeachment One example here was Democratic
Senator John Oaf who said quote “When the sitting president of the United States is selling
access for what are effectively payments directly to him there is no question that that
rises to the level of an impeachable offense.” However Osaf also acknowledged that an impeachment
is unlikely unless the Democrats can gain control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections
Unsurprisingly Elizabeth Warren was also quick to oppose Alongside fellow Democratic Senator Adam
Schiff she penned an open letter to the Office of Government Ethics urging them to address concerns
surrounding Trump’s crypto ventures particularly his memecoin The letter underscored concerns
that foreign actors and other entities could effectively buy influence at the White House
potentially swaying US policies which she described as a threat to national security Notably
the letter was sent on the same day that Warren raised similar issues with the SEC questioning
whether the Trump media and technology group was quote free from undue political interference
and influence from the president and his administration Warren also claimed that the value
of Trump’s memecoin surged following quote a shady crypto deal with the United Arab Emirates She
asserted that Trump and his family stand to benefit personally from a $2 billion investment
by UAE statebacked firm MGX into crypto exchange Binance which was settled using USD1 As such
opposing senators called for an urgent ethics probe into these dealings arguing that they
serve as a backdoor for foreign influence and personal enrichment A group of nine Democratic
pro- crypto senators subsequently announced that they would pull support for the Genius Act saying
the bill quote still has numerous issues that must be addressed This caused ripples across Congress
Some Democratic lawmakers pushed for additional hearings before advancing any crypto legislation
be it for stable coins or otherwise To add to the mix were concerns about a separate fundraising
dinner party hosted by Trump at his Virginia Golf Club which cost a whopping $1.5 million per plate
And this was just days after another fundraising dinner that cost just $1 million per head which
raises two questions Why the 50% price increase and what the hell was he serving but back
to those crypto regulations which were now seeing significant opposition So much so that
representative Maxine Waters led some Democratic lawmakers out of a joint hearing on digital assets
Waters claimed that this was due to quote the corruption of the president of the United States
The hearing was rebranded as a roundt discussion and went ahead anyway Democrats in this shadow
hearing then released a draft of legislation to quote establish certain digital asset prohibitions
with respect to government officers and employees The draft proposed banning high-ranking
politicians from owning crypto serving as leadership for a crypto issuer or receiving funds
through the sale or trading of crypto The draft also specifically named Trump Vice President J
D Vance members of Congress and their immediate families Democrats then withdrew support for the
Genius Act which subsequently failed to pass in the Senate A huge blow to crypto regulation to
say the least And to rub salt into the wound the vote failed by just one 48 voted in favor and 49
voted against Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott responded by slamming partisan politics
for blocking the bill and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant called it a missed opportunity Then the
following day Democratic senators sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the Treasury
Department seeking information on Trump’s potential ties to Binance They also requested
details about the steps Binance took during its November 2023 plea agreement with US authorities
which saw Binance pay over $4 billion in fines and led to CZ stepping down as its CEO Now concerns
around Trump’s crypto dealings continued to build especially after the nonpartisan organization
State Democracy Defenders Action released a report which revealed that roughly 40% of Trump’s
net worth was tied to crypto Notably this report came before the launch of the USD1 stable coin
What this report suggests is that Trump has yet to divest from any of his crypto holdings This is
significant because it means that Trump allegedly stands to benefit financially from the very
policies he will be putting forward But it’s not just Trump himself that could benefit from
his own policies A number of red flags have also been raised around some of Trump’s affiliates
who could also benefit financially The obvious examples here are Trump’s sons who you’ll recall
are actively involved with World Liberty Financial Another red flag meanwhile was raised against Tron
founder Justin Sun who has previously been under fire from the SEC for alleged securities fraud
and other violations Sun has invested a total of $75 million in WLFI the native token for Trump’s
DeFi protocol Notably his initial investment of $30 million was made when World Liberty Financial
was struggling to meet its fundraising target Now this is important because Sun has since been
welcomed by the World Liberty Financial team as an adviser to the project What’s crazy is that
shortly after this mammoth investment the SEC asked the courts to pause any enforcement actions
against him Now some would say this is expected given that the SEC also paused other enforcement
actions Others though are not so sure It’s also worth noting that the leaderboard on the Trump
memecoins website reveals that the top holder currently holds more than 1.4 million tokens
The wallet holding this stash is labeled with the username Sun which has of course led many to
speculate that this wallet belongs to Justin Sun As such Democrats have sent a letter to Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessant asking his department to quote “Make available to the committees all
suspicious activity reports or SS related to the Trump family’s recently launched crypto
venture World Liberty Financial and Trump branded memecoins This request was part of a
broader inquiry based around concerns of bribery corruption and conflicts of interest This inquiry
also looks into some of Trump’s other affiliations including the Republican fundraising platform Win
Red and Elon Musk for his America Political Action Committee or PAC Now at the time of shooting the
Senate has recently voted by 66 votes to 32 to overcome a filibuster and advance the Genius Act
towards a final vote on the Senate floor The date for this final vote is still to be decided However
it’s important to remember that the Genius Act will also need to pass the House to become law As
we’ve learned Democratic politicians in the Senate seem to be more opposed to stable coin regulations
than Democratic politicians in the House But the Genius Act could still face serious hurdles in
the House if only because the House is trying to pass its own competing stable coin regulations
And all of this begs the question of what this could mean for the future of crypto regulation
in the US Well you’ll recall that Democrats in the House will want to modify the bill to block
Trump and his associates from investing in crypto while Republicans will be unlikely to make
these adjustments However there is potential pressure on politicians to find a solution that
satisfies both sides That’s because pro- crypto interests were among the biggest donors of the
2024 election Fair Shake the crypto industry pack has warned Senate leadership against playing
political games urging them to pass a stable coin bill soon Chances are that House politicians
are facing similar pressure In any case though all this suggests that the regulatory landscape
for crypto in the US could improve despite the push backs And what’s more is that the crypto
market could still pump regardless of whether these regulations are passed or not That’s because
some investors believe that while regulations are meant to support the industry they could in fact
end up doing more harm than good For example they could open the door to more competition from Trad
which could end up crushing most crypto projects As such the ideal solution would be to have a
loose regulatory environment that allows crypto companies to experiment more freely What’s crazy
is that this could actually be the very regulatory backdrop we’re being presented with That’s because
SEC Commissioner Hester Pur recently said that the SEC is looking at changing the rules to allow
companies to issue tokenized securities with less scrutiny In essence these rule changes would allow
blockchain companies to issue and trade securities without having to register with the SEC Now this
could be incredibly bullish for crypto since it would create much more freedom for innovation
And not only that but Pers also said that a decentralized exchange would no longer need to
register with the SEC as a broker dealer clearing agency or even as an exchange This is significant
because under the leadership of former chair Gary Gendler the SEC had previously tried going after
dexes like Uniswap for offering unregistered securities It’s important to note though that even
under the new rules blockchain firms would still need to comply with anti- fraud and manipulation
laws and would need to meet recordkeeping and disclosure requirements Needless to say though
this would be a relief to blockchain companies everywhere And this could be huge for a number of
crypto niches But perhaps the biggest beneficiary will be tokenized realworld assets or RWAs That’s
because tokenized RWAs currently face a chicken and egg style problem where issuers are hesitant
to create tokenized funds due to limited trading venues while platforms are reluctant to create the
necessary infrastructure needed for RWAs to thrive However these new exemptions could resolve this
issue by enabling experimental secondary markets without the added compliance concerns And this
could even create more demand for stable coins which are also RWAS their tokenized versions of
the US dollar And this could even result in Trafi institutions and web 2 companies getting involved
in the stable coin sector Case in point Meta the company behind Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp is
now considering stable coins for crossber payments So that’s why we’ll be keeping a very close
eye on this story as it develops And you can rest assured that we’ll be keeping you updated
every step of the way Okay if you enjoyed that video then smash those like and subscribe buttons
to show it a little bit of love If you want to learn more about Trump’s crypto plans then check
out the video right over here And if you want to see how the PayPal mafia could be influencing
the White House then you can check out the video right over here Okay thank you all for watching
and I’ll see you next time This is Guy signing
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