Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee plans to block a hearing on cryptocurrency legislation Tuesday over concerns related to President Trump’s growing ties to the industry.
Waters will object to the joint hearing between the House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, a Democratic aide told The Hill. This prevents them from moving forward, as joint hearings require the approval of every member.
House Democrats will instead hold their own hearing to investigate Trump’s crypto ventures, including his meme coin and World Liberty Financial.
The move comes after Republican leaders on the two committees released a discussion draft for digital asset market structure legislation.
Waters told House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) that she would not approve the joint hearing unless the legislation included provisions to block Trump from profiting from the industry, which he declined to do, according to the staffer.
Trump and his family have increasingly expanded their crypto portfolio, as his administration pushes for new rules of the road for the industry.
World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm launched by the president and his sons, announced last week that an Emirati firm would use its new stablecoin to conduct a $2 billion transaction with Binance.
Trump is set to attend a dinner later this month with the top investors in his meme coin, which he launched shortly before his inauguration. The price of the token, $TRUMP, jumped 60 percent on the news, prompting some Democratic lawmakers to call for an ethics probe.
The president and his artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto czar, David Sacks, are also expected to appear at a $1.5 million-a-plate fundraiser with crypto and AI investors Monday.
The rebellion by House Democrats is the latest pushback against crypto legislation, threatening to upend Trump and Republicans’ efforts to pass bills establishing a regulatory framework for the industry
A group of crypto-friendly Senate Democrats pulled their support for stablecoin legislation over the weekend, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) sought to expedite a vote on the bill.
The senators, several of whom voted to advance the legislation out of the Senate Banking Committee, accused Republicans of attempting to jam through the bill without further negotiations.
“It seems they want us to suck it up and vote for this bill without our input,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) wrote in a post on X. “That’s not what we expected during this negotiation and not how I operate. Our statement makes clear we won’t let them jam us. Looking forward to continuing to get this bill to a better place.”
