Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts questions U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer during a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “The President’s 2026 Trade Policy Agenda” in the Dirksen Building on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
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Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, plans to kill the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act, known as the Transparency Act, in a speech Monday night as the Senate prepares for a crucial preliminary vote on the bill Tuesday afternoon.
Democratic Warren, D-Mass., whose prepared remarks were first shared with CNBC, would call the bill’s new ethics provisions, which were blessed by President Donald Trump, “a weak fig leaf that won’t prevent him from reaping his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits.”
Republicans, who are leading the transparency bill effort, are hoping that Democrats will join them in supporting legislation that would chart a course for the crypto industry. The bill needs at least 60 yes votes to pass Tuesday’s vote.
Republican leaders of the virtual currency bill released updated legislative language late Sunday that includes new ethics provisions sought by Democrats. The new provisions will allow state attorneys general to enforce ethics provisions and prohibit the issuance of digital assets by the U.S. president and other government officials. The bill’s ethics language remains one of the major hurdles in the clear law debate.
But Warren will argue that the proposed new ethics rules are a smokescreen.
“First, I guarantee you that this law will never be enforced against Donald Trump, because it gives political appointees the power to override enforcement of these ethics provisions,” Warren will say, according to prepared remarks. “Second, this bill contains a major loophole designed to allow President Trump to continue making billions of dollars from crypto businesses like World Liberty Financial and his new bank. Yes, you heard that correctly.”
Warren will also seek unanimous consent to pass a bill called the Presidential Corruption in Banking Act, which would prohibit the approval of a range of bank applications by the president, the vice president, their spouses and children, members of Congress, executive branch officials appointed by the president, and special government officials. It would also require the suspension of such charters issued after January 20, 2025. The bill is unlikely to gain support in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, which counts the president as an honorary co-founder along with special envoy Steve Witkoff, and also counts the president’s sons and Witkoff’s son as co-founders, received a banking license earlier this year.
Warren will argue that the Bank Charter will “accelerate the growth of the U.S. dollar and make it more interconnected with the U.S. financial system, thereby further benefiting President Trump and his family.”
He also plans to warn that passing the transparency bill could have a similar effect, alleging that Senate Republicans have “an intent to further President Trump’s corruption.”
“Look no further than the Senate’s first order of business after recessing in August. Is this a bill to make life more affordable for American families? No. Is this a bill to end Trump’s dangerous Iran war? No. It’s a bill that increases the value of President Trump’s crypto empire and rewards the crypto billionaires who facilitated his corruption,” she would say. “As if the glaring loopholes in the latest ethics clause weren’t enough, it doesn’t even apply to Donald Trump’s new bank.”
—CNBC’s Luke Fountain contributed to this report.
