“Right now, individuals seeking to gain favor with the president can do so by purchasing cryptocurrency that he owns or controls,” stated Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who presented the bill in the Senate, through a press release. “This represents a deeply corrupt mechanism. It poses risks to our national security and undermines public trust in the government. We must put an end to this corruption without delay.”

The proposal of the End Crypto Corruption Act is a reaction to concerns within the Democratic party that the GENIUS Act, which initially enjoyed robust bipartisan support, did not effectively prevent corruption. Although the Senate Banking Committee had passed the bill in March with bipartisan backing, two recent developments led Democrats to reconsider their stance. Firstly, last week, a New York Times report disclosed the potential for the Trump family to gain $2 billion from a stablecoin deal with a Dubai-based investment firm under the current regulatory system. Secondly, Trump launched a contest in April offering the largest meme coin holders a private dinner with him, with the top 25 holders receiving an additional guided tour of the White House. As per a Chainalysis report, the meme coin’s creators, Official Trump, have amassed $320 million from trading fees associated with the contest.

Though they admitted that there’s not much they can do to stop the president right now (see: no laws), Senate Republicans also expressed skepticism over the $TRUMP contest to NBC, and at least one staunch Trump ally, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, offered to partner with the Democrats on efforts to regulate lawmakers holding digital assets. “Even what may appear to be ‘cringey’ with regard to meme coins, it’s legal, and what we need to do is have a regulatory framework that makes this more clear, so we don’t have this Wild West scenario,” she told NBC.