‘King of Crypto’: House Democrats to walk out of hearing following concerns over Trump-backed crypto efforts

House Democrats are reportedly planning to walk out of a joint congressional hearing on cryptocurrency legislation scheduled for Tuesday as pressure mounts over concerns about President Donald Trump's forays into digital assets.

Punchbowl News and Politico reported Monday that Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and other Democrats intend to walk out of the hearing. Waters' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Democratic source connected to the House Financial Services Committee confirmed the news reports to The Block and said a counter-roundtable from Democrats was being planned. 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark, said there have been bipartisan talks on regulating the crypto industry.  

“Since the last Congress, we’ve had productive bipartisan, bicameral discussions on market structure legislation," the spokesperson said in an email to The Block. "We encourage the Ranking Member to attend tomorrow’s hearing to express her views and reconsider her decision to object.”

Both the House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee are set to discuss how to regulate crypto during a hearing titled,  “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: A Blueprint for the 21st Century." Ahead of the hearing, House Republican committee leadership released a discussion draft of the bill on Monday, which is similar to work done over the years in the committee. 

House and Senate committees have also recently advanced legislation focused on regulating stablecoins, though the effort has since come under renewed scrutiny from Democrats. On Saturday, Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Catherine Cortez Masto, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Luján, John Hickenlooper, and Adam Schiff issued a statement warning that the current version of the bill contains multiple unresolved issues.

"While we are eager to continue working with our colleagues to address these issues, we would be unable to vote for cloture should the current version of the bill come to the floor," they said in a statement. 

Democrats have grown increasingly vocal about Trump’s growing involvement in crypto. In March, Chair Hill was asked about the Trump family's connections to the industry, including a DeFi protocol under development, as well as active memecoins and NFTs. World Liberty Financial, a firm backed by Trump, also recently launched its own stablecoin.

That engagement "in the memecoin activity and in considering the formation of a stablecoin have made our work more complicated," Hill previously said

Waters has accused Trump of making himself richer through his crypto ventures.

"This Committee voted to make Trump the King of Crypto by passing legislation that lets him corner the market on stablecoins, kick George Washington off the dollar, and make his own stablecoin U.S. legal tender," Waters said last month. "Instead of stopping this grift, you are enabling it. Mr. Chairman, we need to stop Trump before we take any further steps on crypto legislation."