Fighting Donald Trump has long been a unifying cause for Democrats on Capitol Hill. But a clash over cryptocurrency policy is starting to expose fissures in the resistance.
Crypto-friendly Democrats are gearing up to vote for a GOP-led bill that could benefit digital asset firms, creating a rift with others on the left who say the party should not support legislation that could boost the Trump family’s businesses.
The Divide Over Crypto Legislation
The divide is set to come to a head next week as the Senate hurtles toward its first-ever vote on passing a major crypto regulatory bill when lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess. The legislation would create new rules for issuers of cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins that are pegged to the value of the dollar. The push comes as a firm launched by Trump’s sons is issuing a stablecoin and the president himself is promoting a so-called memecoin — both ventures that Democrats have seized on in oversight and messaging efforts as avenues for potential corruption.
“This bill essentially endorses the president’s corrupt stablecoin business,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has called for Democrats to make Trump’s “corruption and the destruction of democracy the No. 1 issue.”
For others, the conflicts of interest aren’t an overriding concern.
“We should be dealing with that issue, but not letting it undermine an effort to provide safeguards, regulations and guardrails to this emerging industry,” said Sen. Cory Booker, a pro-crypto New Jersey Democrat who added that Trump “is operating a level of grift never before seen out of the White House.”
Political Implications and Concerns
The split illustrates how crypto policy has become a thorny issue on the left, with the fate of a Trump legislative priority and major political implications on the line. Republicans need bipartisan support to get a crypto bill through the Senate, and many Democrats are warning against handing the GOP a legislative victory on the issue amid concerns about Trump’s conflicts of interest. On the other side, an ocean of crypto super PAC cash threatens vulnerable senators who work against the industry-backed bill — or offers to potentially help lawmakers who support it.
It also demonstrates how Trump’s business entanglements have become a major problem for pro-crypto lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, whose efforts to attract wide bipartisan support for their cause have been severely complicated by concerns about presidential corruption.
Political Stances and Dilemmas
Trump allies, including Vice President JD Vance, flocked this week to a major bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, where they touted the administration’s efforts to ingrain crypto in the mainstream financial system. Vance, who said Wednesday the Senate should pass a “clean” version of the stablecoin bill, also called on bitcoin enthusiasts not to “ignore politics, because … politics is not going to ignore this community.”
Two-thirds of Democrats voted against the stablecoin legislation on procedural votes last week. The lawmakers fighting the measure, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, will likely try to hinder final passage with a raft of amendments targeting the Trump businesses, among other issues.
“We should not be helping along Donald Trump’s crypto corruption,” Warren said last week. She added that additional changes are needed to “protect national defense, to give better consumer protection and to put curbs in place” to protect financial stability.
Unity vs. Disagreement
But a growing coalition of other Democrats headed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is defying the warnings to support the crypto legislation, which they say is necessary regardless of concerns about Trump.
“President Trump continues to show that he’s going to ignore the law, outright break the law,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who supports the legislation. “There are many Americans that are also using stablecoins and digital assets in other ways. So, should there be no rules to ensure that we’re going to have more consumer protections for them? I think that there should be.”
The White House has pushed back against claims that Trump’s actions are corrupt. Questioned last week about a dinner Trump attended with the top investors in his memecoin, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “is abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has so far sided with Warren. He voted against the measure on procedural motions last week, saying at a press conference that the legislation was improved but “not at all tough enough on Donald Trump and his family.”
Challenges and Compromises
The issue is complicated for the New York Democrat, who has signaled support for pro-crypto legislation in the past. He is still facing blowback from the left after he opted not to force a government shutdown in March, and green-lighting a crypto bill could further agitate progressive critics. On the other side, his “no” vote could anger crypto firms and their executives, whose super PACs have more than $110 million on hand entering the 2026 elections. The industry PACs supported pro-crypto candidates in both parties in the 2024 elections, but Republicans have bristled at spending that boosted Democrats in battleground states — and some are now calling for the industry to help the GOP expand its majority in the upcoming midterms.
Democratic leaders also now must work to present a united message on Trump, despite the rift. At a press conference hosted by Murphy last week focused on Trump’s memecoin, the Connecticut Democrat was flanked by several other lawmakers who have bashed the president’s crypto ventures. He said at the event that “fighting and shutting down the corruption needs to be the priority — and we still have an opportunity to get that done.”
Standing to Murphy’s left was Rep. Sam Liccardo, a crypto-friendly California Democrat who has introduced a bill along with Murphy that would ban federal officials from issuing digital tokens — and also cosponsors House stablecoin legislation.
Asked about calls to block a stablecoin bill that lacks Trump language, he said “would strongly support” adding a provision blocking the president from issuing crypto coins. But when he offered such an amendment at a House Financial Services markup last month, it was rejected by Republicans and he still voted to advance the bill.
“Reasonable minds can disagree about this,” Liccardo said. “I’m not eager to hold up regulation of an industry that desperately needs regulation if we can’t get that over the goal-line.”
