Mark Moran, a 34-year-old former reality TV contestant and Wall Street banker, is trying an unorthodox route to a U.S. Senate seat: meme coins. The Virginia Democrat, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Mark Warner in the primary, has embraced a Solana-based meme token as a way to court crypto-native voters and generate attention for his campaign. Moran told Decrypt he didn’t create the token—someone using the pseudonym “Atone” did—but the project routed 100% of its royalties to what’s now being called the Mark Moran Fund. A platform that helps spin up meme coins, Bags, shows the token’s debut generated nearly $24,000 in proceeds. Moran has since removed the coin’s contract address from his X bio and now lists himself as a “Revolutionary Virginian Running for U.S. Senate.” “I view a political campaign as attention and community,” Moran said. “Once I saw that it was legit, I thought, ‘Okay, well, any attention is good attention.’” He framed the experiment as an opportunity to highlight campaign finance issues: pointing to the influence of big donors, he has floated policy ideas for crypto taxation—proposing, for example, a simple flat tax on gains only when they’re converted to USD—to give the industry clearer rules and keep innovation in the U.S. How the token works and what Moran will do with proceeds - The Mark Moran Fund collects a perpetual 1% trading fee (a royalty model creators can assign to social accounts). Moran says he’s using those royalties to buy the meme coin back and build a “treasury,” not to accept donations to his campaign or to funnel money into pro-crypto PACs. - He initially tried using the token to reward video “clippers” who create short clips from longer content, but many recipients reportedly sold the tokens immediately. Market reaction and context Like most hype-driven tokens, Moran’s meme coin saw an initial spike and then faded; at its peak the project was valued at roughly $32,000. That is tiny compared with the $14.5 billion peak market cap briefly reached by former President Donald Trump’s meme coin about a year earlier—an episode that drew intense scrutiny, criticism (including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren), and headlines when the token later traded about 96% below its high. Politicians and crypto are no longer a novelty: Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have both been tied to crypto fundraising efforts, and other elected officials have engaged with tokens (New York City’s own token push under Mayor Eric Adams and a disclosure by Rep. Mike Collins of a meme-coin purchase are recent examples). But the intersection of digital tokens and politics raises legal red flags. Regulatory questions and legislative backdrop Campaign finance experts warn meme coins linked to political figures can run afoul of Federal Election Commission rules on contribution limits, disclosure, and foreign-donor restrictions. Columbia Law professor Richard Briffault told Decrypt concerns include uncertainty of value and the potential for obfuscating donor identity or allowing foreign influence. Legislative responses are already in motion. Rep. Sam Liccardo introduced the MEME Act, which would bar federal officials from engaging in or benefiting from issuance, sponsorship, or promotion of digital assets within 180 days before and after their service. Meanwhile, broader federal crypto policy remains in flux: Congress passed a stablecoin framework last year, but a market structure bill that could clarify rules for digital-asset markets has stalled in the Senate. Sen. Warner—who has been a key Democratic negotiator on that bill—recently told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the bill’s limbo felt like “crypto hell.” Decrypt contacted Warner’s office for comment. A campaign steeped in crypto-savvy — with growing pains Moran sees the meme coin as a transparent, attention-grabbing experiment to modernize political outreach and spotlight campaign finance reform. But he’s also hit typical digital-era missteps: he posted and later deleted a $125 prediction on Kalshi that wagered on his own victory—an action Kalshi’s market rules prohibit as potential market manipulation—and says he has discussed the matter with the exchange, which declined to comment on ongoing investigations. Whether meme coins will become a durable tool for campaigns, or remain a controversial novelty that draws regulatory and political backlash, is still an open question. Moran’s experiment highlights both the marketing power of crypto communities and the legal, ethical and reputational risks politicians face when they try to harness that power. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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