Warren and Blumenthal Ask SEC to Investigate Trump’s Memecoin as Clarity Act Stalls Over Ethics

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal asked the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to investigate $TRUMP, the memecoin President Donald Trump promoted three days before his inauguration. In a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the two Democrats said the token’s collapse warrants scrutiny for possible fraud and unjust enrichment.

The senators built their case on the gap between what buyers lost and what the president earned. Nearly a million investors lost about $3.81 billion on $TRUMP from its January 2025 debut through the end of June, they wrote, citing New York Times reporting, while Trump made $636 million from the token. $TRUMP traded above $74 at its peak and changes hands near $1.47 now, down roughly 98%. The letter also points to a July 27 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations minority staff report collecting accounts from buyers who described the project as abandoned.

The SEC said in February 2025 that memecoins lack meaningful use and generally do not qualify as securities, effectively removing them from its remit.

The letter comes in the week that decides whether the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act moves or waits until after the midterms, and one of the major fights holding the bill up is the ethics section covering Trump’s conduct.

Negotiators are still waiting. Senators Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, sent the White House a tougher version of the provision barring senior officials from direct involvement in crypto projects last week, and the administration had not responded days later, according to reporting by Crypto in America’s Eleanor Terrett. Thune wants to start the Senate’s voting process this week, before the August recess. Without a deal that brings as many as 10 Democrats along, a floor vote risks failing outright.

Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has opposed the bill throughout and sits outside the negotiations; she pressed Senate leaders in July to add ethics language after Trump’s financial disclosure showed more than $1.4 billion in crypto income. The House passed its version 294-134 in July 2025, and the Banking Committee advanced the Senate text 15-9 in May. If Democrats retake the Senate in November, Warren would likely chair the committee that oversees the SEC.

Related Listen: Kristin Smith on Why the Clarity Act Comes Down to a Memecoin

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