Warsh Pledges to Sell His Full Crypto and Venture Portfolio Worth at Least $192 Million
Kevin Warsh crypto holdings disclosed in his 69-page OGE Form 278e financial filing include indirect stakes in more than 20 blockchain and digital asset companies spanning Solana, dYdX, Polymarket, Dapper Labs, and Lightning Network infrastructure, with combined assets alongside his wife totaling at least $192 million.
- The crypto positions are concentrated in two venture fund structures, DCM Investments 10 LLC and a series of AVF funds.
- Fed ethics rules require confirmed officials to complete all required divestitures within six months of taking office, and Office of Government Ethics official Heather Jones certified Warsh will be in compliance once the divestitures are completed.
- Warsh has previously described Bitcoin as “a good policeman” for economic policy and called AI “the most disruptive moment in modern economic history,” views that informed both his venture investments and his rate policy outlook.
Kevin Warsh crypto exposure is unlike anything a previous Fed chair nominee has disclosed. His 69-page financial filing reveals indirect positions across DeFi lending, decentralized derivatives, Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, prediction markets, and Bitcoin payments infrastructure through a web of venture fund structures. If confirmed, he would be the first Federal Reserve Chair in the institution’s 113-year history with prior personal investment in the crypto ecosystem.
The divestiture obligation is clear. Fed ethics rules introduced by Jerome Powell in 2022 following trading scandals among regional Fed presidents explicitly ban senior officials from holding cryptocurrencies, individual equities, sector funds, commodities, and derivatives. New officeholders have six months to achieve compliance. Warsh has pledged unconditional divestiture of all affected positions upon confirmation.
Senators on both sides of the aisle pressed Warsh at Tuesday’s hearing on the transparency of his disclosures, with several Democrats arguing that the use of confidentiality agreements to shield the underlying assets of his largest fund positions makes it impossible for the public to assess conflicts of interest before voting on confirmation.
What Is in the Portfolio and Why It Must Go
The Warsh crypto portfolio details published by CoinDesk based on a full review of the OGE filing include identifiable stakes in Solana and Optimism through AVGF I funds, dYdX, Polymarket, Compound, and Blast through DCM Investments 10 LLC, and Dapper Labs, DeSo, and Friends With Benefits through a separate AVF fund series. A direct position in SpaceX and stakes in AI firms including Recraft and 11x also appear.
The two positions that most concern ethics reviewers are both in Juggernaut Fund LP, each listed at over $50 million with no upper limit disclosed. The underlying assets of both are covered by confidentiality agreements. OGE analyst Heather Jones flagged them specifically, noting that compliance requires full divestiture of both. Unwinding LP stakes in illiquid venture funds is more complex than selling publicly traded positions and could take the full six-month window even after confirmation.
The Divestiture Challenge and Recusal Landscape
Even after divestiture is complete, Warsh faces a complicated recusal landscape. Federal ethics rules generally require a one-year cooling-off period for matters directly affecting recent financial interests. That means decisions the Fed makes affecting stablecoin issuers, DeFi protocols, or Layer 2 networks in his former portfolio could require Warsh to recuse himself from any deliberations in his first year.
For the Fed’s role in overseeing stablecoin yield regulation, bank crypto custody policy, and any future central bank digital currency framework, a one-year recusal by the chair would be a significant operational constraint. The breadth of Warsh’s portfolio, spanning every major category of digital asset infrastructure, means the recusal landscape is unusually wide compared with any prior Fed chair whose financial conflicts were largely confined to traditional securities.
What a Crypto-Aware Fed Chair Means for the Industry
The portfolio is a double-edged signal. A Fed chair with personal venture exposure across DeFi and blockchain infrastructure has more detailed knowledge of the technology than all of his predecessors combined. His views on crypto will not be formed by staff briefings alone. At the same time, the mandatory divestiture and extended recusal obligations mean that whatever policy sympathies his investments implied will be formally constrained for at least the first year of his tenure.
The crypto industry should expect a Fed chair who understands the technology at a structural level and who has publicly described Bitcoin as having a positive disciplinary effect on economic policy. What the industry may not get, at least initially, is a Fed chair who can vote on matters directly affecting the specific networks in which he was invested.
