Trump Agrees to Crypto Ethics Rules in Bid to Pass Bill

President Donald Trump has agreed to new ethics rules as part of a sweeping cryptocurrency bill being written in the Senate. The bill, which could determine whether Washington cements crypto legitimacy into law or not, hinges mainly on whether Trump's sign-offs go far enough.

Trump had been hearing the message loud and clear for weeks about the bill: to get it across the line, he would have to agree to ethics provisions that apply to him too. He initially agreed to a measure that would bar him and his wife from issuing meme coins, but then consented to an even tougher ethics proposal.

The additional proposal requires the president to put his crypto holdings in a blind trust and divest when those holdings reach a certain value. It also allows state attorneys general to step in and enforce the law in addition to the Justice Department.

Trump has amassed significant amounts of crypto wealth while in office, complicating dynamics for senators drafting legislation to try to bring the digital assets industry into the mainstream. The president's agreement to these ethics provisions was seen as a key concession by Democrats who had been pushing for stricter regulations on politicians' crypto investments.