Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY—Warren, Senate colleagues seek info on Trump/UAE deal, raise concerns over Meta stablecoin proposal, (Jun 12, 2025)

By Thomas Thompson

As a new stablecoin bill works its way through the legislative process, U.S. senators grapple with the commercial threats and conflicts of interest associated with private digital money.

The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on legislation that would let banks and other commercial institutions issue their own stablecoins with minimal oversight. With light regulation envisioned under the new bill and with the Trump family’s involvement in stablecoin finances, lawmakers are prompting ethical concerns as well as worries about reining in tech company stablecoin business practices.

On June 10, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Senator Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.), released a copy of their letter to the heads of MGX and Binance regarding a financing deal that implicates the Trump family and political influence. Separately, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined Senator Warren in furnishing a copy of a June 11 letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, probing Meta’s plans to integrate a stablecoin into its platforms for payments.

A stablecoin is a privately issued cryptocurrency whose value is tied to an asset whose own value, in turn, is relatively stable. U.S. dollars and other fiat currencies often are the most popular basis for stablecoin issuance. Stablecoins facilitate transactions between other cryptocurrencies and can be used as a substitute for fiat currencies in otherwise non-digital business.

Trump-affiliated coin used in Emirati MGX’s investment in Binance. In the June 10 letter to MGX and Binance, a cryptocurrency trading platform, Senators Warren and Merkley note they are following up on answers to questions about whether USD1, the Trump family-affiliated cryptocurrency, was used in a $2 billion dollar investment transaction to curry favor with the current U.S. president.

MGX is a United Arab Emirates investment fund focused on artificial intelligence investments. Established last year, it is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, one of the Emirates. Binance is a cryptocurrency trading platform in which MGX acquired a $2 billion share.

USD1 was introduced in March 2025 by World Liberty Financial, Inc. (WLF). Issuance and use of the USD1 stablecoin generates revenues for WLF, which is 60 percent indirectly owned by Trump and his family entities.

In response to questions posed to WLF, its attorneys noted that if USD1 had not been available, the transaction would likely have been conducted in fiat currency.

In their July 10 letter the senators ask, “if you were likely to use alternative currencies, why—beyond the obvious benefit of gaining favor, directly or indirectly, with the Trump Administration—did you select USD1, a newly-launched, untested cryptocurrency with no track record?”

The senators note in a statement accompanying the release of their June 10 letter an earlier letter to Office of Government Ethics Acting Director Jamison Greer in which they raised “significant concerns about the MGX-Binance deal and how it appears to enrich President Trump, his family, and members of his administration.”

Are “Zuck Bucks” poised to return? Pointing to press reports that Meta is considering issuing its own stablecoin, Senators Blumenthal and Warren wrote to CEO Zuckerberg about the company’s plans.

The letter highlights ethical concerns that were first raised by Meta’s 2019 foray into cryptocurrencies.

That coin, called Libra, never got off the ground (but now without first earning the nickname “Zuck Bucks”). “The project was eventually abandoned after it failed to secure trust or regulatory approval,” according to a statement accompanying the letter.

Their request for information and expression of concern about the press reports, they note, are prompted by the Senate’s imminent consideration of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. As drafted, the GENIUS act would allow private companies like Meta to issue stablecoins.

The senators’ letter talks about how a stablecoin might allow Meta to “pry into consumers’ transactions and commercial activity.” The letter further asserts, “The massive amounts of consumer data it would ingest could help Meta fuel surveillance pricing schemes on its platform, more intrusive targeted advertising, or otherwise help the company monetize sensitive private information through sales to third party data brokers.”

The letter poses several questions about whether and how a new Meta coin will differ from Libra and asks Zuckerberg for a response by July 17.

Companies: Binance; Meta; MGX; World Liberty Financial, Inc.

LegislativeActivity: BankingOperations Blockchain FinancialStability FinTech OversightInvestigations Privacy SecuritiesDerivatives