Senators: Stop the Genius Act, Which Enables Massive Crypto Corruption

Call BOTH of your Senators.

Featured

Senator Adam Schiff

DC Office: 202-224-3841

Email (use your own words): Sen. Schiff’s email contact form

Senator Alex Padilla

SF Office: (415) 981-9369

DC Office: (202) 224-3553

Email (use your own words): Sen. Padilla’s email contact form

Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

I am furious and disappointed that the Senator voted yes on cloture for the GENIUS Act, a crypto-friendly bill that will enable Trump’s continued corruption. Unless it is rewritten to actually stop Trump from taking crypto-bribes, I urge him to oppose it when it next comes up for a vote and work with the rest of the Democratic caucus in the Senate to make sure the bill does not pass.

Background

Cryptocurrencies—digital assets that can be traded anonymously—have enabled massive increases in grift, graft, and other corruption. Among the wrongdoers are Trump himself and his wife Melania, who have launched their own cryptocurrencies on their way back into the White House, enabling his supporters and foreign governments to funnel money into his pockets.

Of course, digital assets are worthless by themselves; in order for the recipient of a cryptocurrency payment such as a bribe to realize any value from it, the assets traded must be converted to actual money, such as US dollars. To do this, crypto traders typically exchange the assets for what’s called a “stablecoin”: a cryptocurrency ostensibly pegged in some way to a real currency such as the US dollar.

There has been quite the history of alleged fraud in the stablecoin industry—in particular, there have been scandals where a stablecoin ostensibly backed 1:1 by a pool of US dollars turned out… not to be. Cue panic from everyone hoping to convert their Monopoly money into real money.

These sorts of schemes have hitherto been regarded by the Securities and Exchange Commission as fraud. This month, our Congress has swooped in to fix that.

Both our Senators voted to advance a bill called the GENIUS Act that claims to “regulate” stablecoins. As happens all too often, “regulate” here means “legalize.” This bill would enable illicit uses of cryptocurrency, open the door to blatant frauds, and imperil financial stability.

The Trump family launched multiple cryptocurrencies that they’re already using to accept bribes. The United Arab Emirates is using one of Trump’s cryptocurrencies for a $2 billion deal—making millions for Trump. Trump is using his other cryptocurrency to run a pay-to-play scheme, where the top investors get to attend a fancy gala at the White House and receive face time with the President.

As with most other cryptocurrencies, the Trump and Melania tokens are worthless until the Trump family converts them to dollars (or rubles). They’ll need to use stablecoins to do that; the GENIUS Act (quite possibly a reference to Trump calling himself a “very stable genius”) provides a regulatory framework to enable Trump’s corruption.

As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) put it, Trump is effectively posting his “Venmo or CashApp online for every corporate interest and foreign government to funnel money directly into his bank account.”

Bonus action

Do you know anyone who is represented by a Republican House member or senator?

Please encourage them to call their Republican representatives and use this script:

Hi, my name is _____ and I live in ZIP code ______. I'm upset that my Representative/Senator voted for the Democrat-supported GENIUS Act. I don't know if you know this, but the name of this stablecoin-regulation bill is a veiled attack on our President, essentially calling him a “stable genius” as an ironic insult. Shame on the Democrats for promoting this hateful bill and shame on Representative/Senator ______ for voting for it.

The authors of the bill have not explained their reason for the bill’s name (other than the expansion of its acronym in the bill’s formal title), but naming a stablecoin bill “the GENIUS Act” raises our eyebrows. Regardless of whether they actually meant this reference, it’s open to this interpretation and this may be a way to turn Republicans in thrall to Trump against it.