California Senate Passes AB 2409 40-0, Barring Official Memecoins From 2027

California’s Senate voted 40-0 on Wednesday to pass Assembly Bill 2409, a measure that would bar public officials from issuing or partnering on memecoins sold to state residents starting January 1, 2027. The vote tally comes from Legiscan’s public legislative record, and the Assembly followed with a 78-0 vote to concur with the Senate’s amendments. The bill is now in the enrolled stage, awaiting the governor’s signature.

What the Legislative Record Actually Shows

Because Legiscan tracks California’s official legislative process, the vote counts themselves are as close to primary-source data as crypto policy news gets. AB 2409 would prohibit digital asset service providers from offering California residents memecoins issued on or after January 1, 2027, when those tokens are offered by, or in partnership with, federal public officials or state and local public officers.

The bill defines a memecoin as a digital asset whose value derives primarily from public interest, speculation or community engagement, rather than from any underlying utility. Lawmakers cited concerns about conflicts of interest and what the bill’s text calls “pay-to-play arrangements.” The measure still needs the governor’s signature to become law.

The TRUMP Token Numbers Behind the Push

The timing lines up with fresh data on the president-linked Official Trump token. A Thursday report from consumer advocacy group Public Citizen estimated that TRUMP investors are collectively $3.2 billion underwater, with most of those losses unrealized rather than locked in through selling.

TRUMP currently ranks as the fifth-largest memecoin by market capitalization, at roughly $688 million, according to CoinMarketCap figures cited alongside the report. The token gained 53% over the past week, clawing back some ground after a 67% decline over the trailing year. Those two numbers together, a sharp weekly bounce against a steep annual drawdown, describe a token that remains far below its earlier highs even as short-term momentum has turned positive.

One Source, Official Records: What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t

Our reporting on this story rests on a single news outlet’s account, Cointelegraph, but the underlying vote data traces to Legiscan’s public record rather than to a press release or an anonymous tip. That distinction matters. A vote tally logged by a state legislature’s tracking system is not the same category of claim as an unverified rumor repeated across multiple sites without a primary source behind it.

The TRUMP token loss figures carry a different level of certainty. They come from Public Citizen’s own report, cited by one outlet, and have not yet been independently checked against on-chain wallet data or a second research group’s methodology. Readers should treat the $3.2 billion figure as a single organization’s estimate rather than a market-wide confirmed number until another party replicates the calculation.

AB 2409 now sits with California’s governor. If signed, the January 1, 2027 effective date would give exchanges and wallet providers roughly a year to build compliance screens for memecoins tied to elected officials before enforcement begins.

Sources

• cointelegraph.com
• decrypt.co