A group of House Democrats will introduce legislation today that would make it illegal for high-ranking government officials to create or promote crypto tokens—and would retroactively punish President Donald Trump for launching his own meme coin.
Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Act (MEME Act) would prevent the President, vice president, members of Congress and senior Executive Branch officials as well as their spouses and children from sponsoring or endorsing securities, commodities, futures or digital assets.
A law that is passed would penalize anyone violating these rules. It would also punish those who continue to profit from such assets, even if they were issued prior to the bill’s enactment—a direct stab at Trump and his wife, Melania, who both launched multi-billion dollar meme coins in January.
“Let’s make corruption criminal again,” In a shared statement, Rep. Sam Liccardo(D-CA), will present the MEME Act to the House later today. Decrypt. “The Trumps’ issuance of meme coins financially exploits the public for personal gain, and raises the specter of insider trading and foreign influence over the Executive Branch.”
Liccardo spokesperson confirms to Decrypt The MEME Act will also cover government officials that promote or profit from third-party tokens. Rep. Mike Collins has, for instance regularly criticized the MEME Act. Speak out About obscure meme coins that he invested in and sent those assets skyrocketing.
All Democrats are cosponsors of the bill. They include Ro Khanna (D-CA), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Kevin Mullen (D-CA), Rahúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Norma Torres (D-CA), Andre Carson (D-IN), Scott Peters (D-CA), Darren Soto (D-FL), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), John Garamendi (D-CA), Nanette Barragán (D-CA), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), Dan Goldman (D-NY), and Adam Smith (D-WA).
While the MEME Act has almost no chance of passage over the next two years, given Republican control of the House, the bill is a pointed rebuke yet of the Trump family’s self-enrichment, while in power, via crypto products.
On the day of President Obama’s inauguration the president made his first appearance without warning. Trump’s token The stock’s value quickly rose to more than $51 billion. Insiders benefited from this. Massive Payouts. It has been around since collapsed The value of the product has increased by more than 80%.
Volatile and highly volatile Unregulated The meme coin market was brought under scrutiny by the Argentinian President Javier Milei earlier in this month when he promoted a token. LIBRAThe stock, which soared past a valuation of $4 billion, was robbed by insiders, who made away with nearly One Hundred Million Dollars The retail market is left with no liquidity.
Milei was hit by a car after she was spotted. fraud charges Several calls have been made for his impeachment.
“It’s appalling that we have to look to Argentina’s criminal justice system as an example of how an independent prosecutor should treat a case of blatant public corruption like this,” Liccardo said.
James Rubin, Editor