Bipartisan Ethics Proposal for Crypto Bill Could Grant Trump Significant Tax Deferral Benefit
Key Takeaways
- •A bipartisan ethics proposal would require President Trump to divest from crypto-related businesses while allowing him to defer capital gains taxes on those mandated sales.
- •Trump's 2025 financial disclosure reported $1.4 billion in crypto-related income, with approximately $635 million from memecoin licensing royalties and roughly $588 million from World Liberty Financial token sales.
- •The market-structure bill is a major piece of digital-asset legislation intended to establish clearer regulatory boundaries for crypto trading venues, token issuers, and intermediaries.
- •Democratic demands to address Trump's personal crypto conflicts have been the primary obstacle delaying the bill's advancement in Congress.
- •The proposed tax-deferral mechanism, while used in prior federal ethics frameworks, would be without recent precedent when applied to a sitting president with this level of crypto-related income.
A bipartisan ethics proposal presented to US President Donald Trump — aimed at securing passage of the crypto market-structure bill in Congress — could yield a substantial tax benefit for the president, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The market-structure bill is one of the most significant pieces of digital-asset legislation under consideration in Congress, designed to establish clearer regulatory boundaries for crypto trading venues, token issuers, and related intermediaries. Its advancement has been stalled by Democratic demands that Trump's personal financial ties to crypto be addressed before the legislation proceeds.
According to people familiar with the matter, the undisclosed ethics addendum includes a provision that would require the president to divest from crypto-related businesses. The proposal would reportedly allow Trump to defer capital gains taxes on any mandated divestitures, potentially resulting in tax savings worth millions of dollars. Capital gains tax deferrals for forced divestitures have been used in prior federal ethics frameworks, though applying such a mechanism to a sitting president with this scale of crypto-related income would be without recent precedent.
Democratic concerns regarding Trump's crypto conflicts have been a primary obstacle to advancing the market-structure bill. Senators have been developing an ethics addendum intended to break the legislative impasse. However, the reported tax-deferral mechanism may itself become a new flashpoint, with Democrats likely to scrutinize whether the provision meaningfully curtails the president's financial interests.
Cointelegraph contacted the White House for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
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Trump's annual financial disclosure report for 2025, released in late June, showed that the president earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures over the prior year. The 927-page filing indicated that the licensing and sale of memecoins, including Official Trump (TRUMP), generated the largest share — approximately $635 million in "royalties" stemming from a "license agreement with Celebration Coins."
The Trump family's DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, ranked as the second-largest source of income, producing roughly $588 million in "proceeds from token sales." The disclosure also noted a comparatively modest $197 earned from the sale of an equity interest in a stablecoin venture.
Separately, disclosures published on World Liberty's website state that DT Marks DEFI LLC — an entity affiliated with Trump and certain family members — holds "approximately 38% of the equity interests" in World Liberty Financial's parent company.
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