- Rep. Ro Khanna presents a bill to ban elected officials from trading or owning cryptocurrencies.
- Khanna’s suggestion follows President Trump’s pardon of Binance founder.
- Khanna previously introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act.
Representative Ro Khanna has announced goals to introduce legislation that would restrict elected officials from owning or trading cryptocurrencies and stocks. This suggestion emerges in the wake of debate covering President Donald Trump’s pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, sparking concerns from Khanna.
Ro Khanna Proposal’s Core Focus
Khanna’s proposed legislation would prevent politicians from creating or holding cryptocurrencies while in office. The move is aimed at ensuring that elected officials do not have financial conflicts of interest related to digital currencies. This follows Khanna’s previous attempts to curb potential ethical issues within government by limiting stock trading.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Khanna emphasized the dangers of cryptocurrency involvement among politicians. He criticized the actions of foreign billionaires and their influence in U.S. politics, particularly in relation to Zhao and his dealings with Trump . Khanna specifically pointed to Zhao’s past legal issues, stating that Zhao had been involved in money laundering operations that supported groups like Hamas and Iran.
The Controversy Surrounding Zhao’s Pardon
Ro Khanna’s comments regarding Zhao included claims about a pardon granted by President Trump, which he described as “blatant corruption.” However, Khanna inaccurately stated that Zhao served a four-year prison sentence. In reality, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering violations. This plea was part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The claims made by Khanna also contained accusations of financial connections between Zhao and the Trump family, especially in the case of a cryptocurrency company, which Khanna called related to the president’s son. As Khanna observed, the case was a clear conflict of interest and is a sign that more rigid control should be put in place.
Expanding on His Previous Efforts
The recent effort is a continuation of the 2023 proposal by Khanna, who introduced the Bill prohibiting Congressional Stock Trading, which aimed to disallow the trading of individual stocks by Congress members while they are in power. The bill was planned to ensure clarity and avoid the situation where the lawmakers would gain personally from the insider information. Even though the bill got stuck in the committee, it had already ignited the discussions regarding ethics and conflicts of interest in Congress across party lines that were to continue.
With the proposal for a ban on crypto trading , Khanna seems to act on a similar principle, and the discussion is already shifting from stock trading to other financial technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, that are still emerging. By hitting both stocks and digital assets, Khanna wants to secure the public’s trust in government officials from being eroded through the loopholes that could be opened up.
Introducing the proposal by Khanna would also question the possible conflict of interest that the elected officials could be having in the fast-growing space of cryptocurrency. His actions are indicative of the growing tension on the role of money in politics and he states that the government ought to be fair and honest.

