The crypto market has been in shambles lately, though the worth of bitcoin is now again as much as round $70,000 after sinking to approximatey $60,000 yesterday. In response, Democrats are mocking Trump’s crypto embrace that started throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign, and the president’s own TRUMP memecoin is now down roughly 95% from the all-time excessive it hit across the time of his inauguration. Issues look even worse for the primary woman’s MELANIA memecoin, which is now down 99% from its personal all-time excessive.
Yikes pic.twitter.com/dfvbKMSRou
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) February 5, 2026
On high of the extreme decline seen within the bitcoin and higher crypto market, the Trump administration has been accused by lots of conducting varied corrupt offers and providing pay-to-play schemes by way of favorable regulatory coverage for crypto insiders. The TRUMP memecoin is a part of this, as crypto entrepreneur and investor Justin Solar’s large holdings of the memecoin had been a part of a letter sent by House Democrats to the SEC relating to issues over the dearth of regulatory enforcement within the crypto trade that has occurred throughout Trump’s second time period in workplace.
On high of issues across the potential buying of affect by means of the memecoin, there has additionally been the accusation of “unprecedented corruption” across the pardon granted to the previous CEO of crypto alternate Binance, the lack of a similar pardon for Bitcoin builders who don’t have any enterprise dealings with Trump, and the more moderen issues relating to a $500 million investment by United Arab Emirates Nationwide Safety Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan within the Trump-affiliated crypto enterprise World Liberty Monetary.
All through this entire time, the Trump household can be reported to have loved $1.4 billion in profits from their crypto enterprise dealings.
Earlier this week, U.S. House Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) sent a letter to World Liberty Financial co-founder Zack Witkoff and United States Legal professional for the District of Delaware Benjamin Wallace outlining a wide range of issues relating to the $500 million deal, which has additionally been known as out as corrupt by different Democrats. Key issues relate to how the deal might have impacted U.S. export coverage in relation to AI chips, nationwide security-related objections, and potential ties to Chinese language pursuits.
Notably, Witkoff is the son of Steve Witkoff, who has served within the Trump administration as the USA particular envoy to the Center East and particular envoy for peace missions. “The reported particulars of the Emirati funding of $500 million into WLF are as stunning as they’re scandalous,” wrote Khanna in his letter to Wallace.
Trump’s promise to offer regulatory readability to the crypto trade by means of the CLARITY Act has additionally been threatened not too long ago, as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the company’s withdrawal of support from the bill after seeing a draft copy of the Senate’s model of the laws. In accordance with Armstrong, no crypto invoice can be higher than the one he noticed.
On high of the lack of assist from Coinbase, Democrats have lengthy argued that ethics protections must be added to the invoice to stop the kind of ethically-troublesome crypto profiteering that has been perceived within the Trump administration thus far. According to a report in Politico, the current $500 million World Liberty Monetary deal has additional invigorated issues over these ethics points. “This newest obvious bribe from the UAE, that places our nationwide safety in danger, implies that crypto supporters now need to overlook a good taller steaming pile of corruption,” mentioned Senator Elizabeth Warren.
After all, the $190 million in money held by crypto-focused tremendous PAC Fairshake to be used within the upcoming midterm elections makes going towards what the trade needs an uphill battle.
A scarcity of regulatory readability, particularly in relation to protections for builders, can be significantly disappointing for many who are extra involved in Bitcoin than the centralized aspects of the crypto sector, such as stablecoins and exchanges offering crypto token trading. In an announcement relating to the present state of the CLARITY Act shared with Gizmodo, Bitcoin Coverage Institute Head of Coverage Zack Shapiro acknowledged, “Open-source builders writing and publishing code shouldn’t be handled as regulated monetary intermediaries, and people should retain the flexibility to carry and transact with their very own belongings with out being compelled into custodial chokepoints.”
