Incoming Fed Chair's Portfolio Reveals Crypto Investments, Promising Divestment

Kevin Warsh, the nominee for Federal Reserve chair, has filed his financial disclosure, unveiling a portfolio that includes investments in multiple crypto and blockchain companies. The filing, which totals 69 pages, lists combined assets with his wife worth at least $192 million, with specific holdings in DeFi protocols, Ethereum scaling networks, a Bitcoin Lightning startup, and prediction markets. Warsh has pledged to divest most of these holdings. The disclosure reveals that Warsh, through various venture fund structures, holds equity positions in over a dozen blockchain and digital asset companies, spanning DeFi lending, decentralized derivatives, Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, prediction markets, and Bitcoin payments infrastructure. The majority of these positions are valued at less than $1,000, but there are larger, more opaque holdings that will require full divestiture. Warsh's crypto and blockchain-related holdings are concentrated in two fund structures: DCM Investments 10 LLC and a series of funds labeled AVF I, AVF II, AVF III, and AVGF I and II. The holdings include DeFi and trading protocols, Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, Bitcoin-specific investments, crypto investment and financial infrastructure, and Web3, NFTs, and crypto-adjacent companies. Warsh previously invested in Bitwise Asset Management, the firm behind one of the spot bitcoin ETFs, though this position does not appear on the current disclosure. The mandatory divestiture of these holdings may constrain Warsh's ability to act on any sympathies these investments imply, at least in the first year. The disclosure has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and the impact of Warsh's divestiture on the crypto industry.