Trump's pick to lead the Fed is a crypto degen worth over $130m

Trump's pick for Fed Chair files financial disclosure. It reveals a vast financial portfolio, including some 30 crypto investments. Kevin Warsh invested early in some of the crypto industry's hottest projects.

A new financial disclosure from Kevin Warsh has revealed over two dozen investments in crypto startups. In January, Warsh, a financier and former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was nominated by President Trump to lead the Fed. He has spoken highly of Bitcoin, which has seen the industry celebrate his nomination. The new disclosures add to that image.

Warsh’s many crypto investments The Tuesday filing, a mandatory ethics and vetting requirement for presidential nominees to high-level government positions, gives the first detailed look at Warsh’s personal wealth. A DL News analysis identified some 30 investments in crypto-related companies, although for some it isn’t clear if the investments are still active. Many of the crypto investments appear to be small venture bets on blockchain infrastructure and payment apps. Put together, they reveal Warsh’s deep connections in the crypto industry, which granted him the opportunity to invest in several major projects during their early stages. To be sure, Warsh’s crypto investments are just one part of a vast financial portfolio. His investments, which also include several million dollars in US Treasuries and stakes in various private equity funds, are valued at between $130 million and $450 million.

DeFi and blockchains Warsh’s investments in decentralised finance and blockchain companies make up the biggest chunk of his crypto portfolio. He’s thrown money at DeFi lender Compound, derivatives trading platforms dYdX and Lighter, as well as several projects focused on the intersection of blockchain and AI agents. There are also investments in multiple infrastructure development firms, including Tenderly, an Ethereum development platform, and Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain. Warsh also invested in Render, a decentralised network that operates a peer-to-peer market for computing power. While some of these projects, like Solana, have returned many multiples to investors, others haven’t performed as well. Blast, a once-promising Ethereum layer 2 blockchain with some $2.6 billion in deposits, now has just $100 million deposited to its DeFi apps — a 96% decline.

Venture and investing Warsh has also shuffled money into several crypto-focused venture investment firms. The biggest of which is San Francisco-based Polychain, founded by Olaf Carlson-Wee in 2016. The firm manages several billion dollars in assets across multiple funds. Warsh also invested in Scalar Capital, a smaller San Francisco-based crypto hedge fund founded in 2017 by Linda Xie and Jordan Clifford. Perhaps one of Warsh’s most unorthodox investments is in CreatorDAO, a venture-style platform that allows investors to buy stakes in the future earnings of content creators. The project raised $20 million in a high-profile 2022 seed round led by a16z crypto and Initialized Capital. Since its launch, the project has struggled to find commercial success. Its Creator token is down significantly from its launch price.

Payments Payments apps make up a small but significant chunk of Warsh’s crypto portfolio. His most high-profile investment in this area is Lightning Network, a protocol built on top of Bitcoin designed to enable fast and cheap payments. Early investors in the network’s developer, Lightning Labs, include Jack Dorsey, venture firm M13, and former Goldman Sachs executive David Heller. Warsh also invested in Lemon Cash, a popular Latin American fintech app that lets users buy, sell, and spend crypto.

NFTs NFTs and social media projects are out of fashion in the crypto industry right now. But Warsh appears to have caught the bug during the height of the market’s frenzy. He holds investments in several NFT-focused companies, including Dapper Labs, the firm behind Basketball-themed NFT platform NBA Top Shot. NFTs were among the most explosive trends in the industry in 2021, with over $44 billion sent to NFT-related smart contracts on Ethereum alone, according to Chainalysis. Investor interest in NFTs has since plummeted, however. NFT trading volume across all blockchains sank to around $5.6 billion in 2025, according to data from CryptoSlam. Dapper Labs, one of several firms at the epicentre of the bygone trend, has struggled in recent years. In 2024, it settled a class action lawsuit that alleged the firm shared the private information of customers without their consent.

Crypto and social media The intersection of crypto and social media is another area Warsh invested in. He holds a stake in DeSo, a blockchain designed to decentralise social media and enable user-owned content. DeSo’s founder, Nader Al-Naji, was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice in July 2024 for fraud. However, the charges against Al-Naji were dismissed in March 2026. Warsh also invested in Friends With Benefits, a token-gated platform that functions as an exclusive social club for crypto enthusiasts. The platform is still active as of 2026, but has significantly cooled off from its 2021 to 2022 heyday. The Friends With Benefits token, used to access the community, is down 99% from its all-time high.