Curbing Officials' Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act
The Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act would create new federal ethics restrictions aimed at preventing public office holders and certain immediate family members from profiting from digital-asset-related financial interests. It adds a new subchapter to title 5 of the U.S. Code and a new criminal offense in title 18 to bar covered public officials from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing a broad set of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, meme coins, tokens, non-fungible tokens, payment stablecoins, and related securities, commodities, derivatives, and concentrated fund holdings. The bill also applies these restrictions to conduct occurring before service begins and after service ends, and it treats such conduct as outside official duties for immunity purposes.
The bill further expands ethics disclosure rules to require public officials to report certain digital assets over $1,000, and it clarifies that interests in digital assets count as “financial interests” under the federal conflict-of-interest statute. It also imposes a certification regime on permitted payment stablecoin issuers, requiring them to certify that no public official profits from their issuance and to recertify quarterly, with public posting of those certifications by the Office of Government Ethics. A GAO report is required within 360 days to recommend additional updates to federal ethics and enforcement laws in light of evolving digital-asset regulatory frameworks.
If enacted, the bill would significantly expand federal ethics law by adding explicit prohibitions and disclosure obligations for digital assets, stablecoins, and related financial products. It would amend title 5 ethics reporting provisions, title 18 conflict-of-interest and criminal provisions, and create new civil and criminal enforcement mechanisms, including penalties, disgorgement, imprisonment, and possible disqualification from federal office. The bill would also affect payment stablecoin issuers by conditioning approval to operate on certifications regarding public officials’ financial interests, and it would require public disclosure of those certifications through the Office of Government Ethics.
The available record shows the bill was introduced by Senator Schiff and several Democratic cosponsors and referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, with no recorded votes or committee transcript excerpts provided. Based on the text, the bill reflects a strong reform-oriented and precautionary stance toward public officials’ involvement in crypto and other digital assets, emphasizing transparency, anti-corruption, and post-service restrictions. Because there is no voting history or hearing record in the provided materials, broader bipartisan support or opposition cannot be determined from the available context.
The main points of contention likely center on the breadth and enforceability of the prohibitions, especially the inclusion of family members, pre-service and post-service windows, and the treatment of endorsements and indirect interests through funds, derivatives, and synthetic instruments. Another likely dispute is whether the bill overreaches by restricting officials’ participation in rapidly evolving digital-asset markets and by imposing new compliance burdens on stablecoin issuers. Supporters would likely frame the bill as an anti-corruption and transparency measure, while critics may argue it is too expansive, could chill lawful investment activity, or may be difficult to administer consistently across different digital-asset products.