Sen. Elizabeth Warren Raises Conflict Of Interest Concerns In Letter To Trump’s ‘Crypto Czar,’ Seeks Financial Disclosures

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s crypto and AI czar David Sacks raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest in his role and asked him to make his financial disclosures with the government public, days after Trump announced the creation of an American “crypto strategic reserve.”
David Sacks, the White House's AI and Crypto Czar, has been urged to publicly release his financial ... [+] disclosures by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
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In her letter, the senator asks Sacks how he has addressed his “conflicts of interest” and how he intends to prevent “the President and other private individuals from directly profiting off of the Trump Administration’s efforts to selectively pump the value of certain crypto assets.”
Warren’s letter raises alarm at several moves made by the Trump administration on crypto recently, including the SEC’s assertion that meme coins are not securities, the regulator dropping its case against Coinbase and the pause in the case against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Warren, who is a ranking member on the Senate’s banking committee, asks Sacks to reveal whether he has filed any financial disclosures with the Office of Government Ethics, if he has recused himself on any matter after accepting the role and how long he intends to serve as a “special government employee.”
Warren’s letter also seeks disclosure on the exact dates Sacks divested Bitcoin, Ether, and Sol tokens from his portfolio (as per his claims) and the exact date his firm Craft Ventures divested from crypto asset manager Bitwise investments.
Warren also wants Sacks to make several other disclosures covering his potential advanced knowledge of Trump’s crypto reserve announcement and how the Trump administration picked the tokens to be included in the reserve, among other things.
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What Do We Know About Trump’s Crypto Strategic Reserve?
Trump formally announced the creation of the reserve on Sunday. He initially said the reserve would include the crypto tokens XRP, SOL and ADA. In a follow up post on his Truth Social platform, Trump clarified that it would “obviously” include bitcoin and ethereum as the “heart of the Reserve.” The announcement had an immediate effect on cryptocurrency prices, which had seen a sharp slide in the previous week. Details about how a reserve would function and which tokens would be picked remain unclear, however, an executive order Trump signed in January indicates the tokens in the reserve would be “potentially derived” from cryptocurrency the federal government has seized “through its law enforcement efforts.”
Crucial Quote
“Americans deserve strong leaders who will prioritize the public interest ahead of their own bottom lines. I hope you address these obvious concerns about conflicts of interest…we ask that you immediately make any financial disclosures that you have filed with the government public, to ensure Congress and the American people that you have made appropriate divestments and that you no longer hold investments that present conflicts of interest,” the letter said.
What To Watch For
The letter from Warren comes just hours before the White House is set to hold its first ever crypto summit on Friday. Several high-profile crypto executives are expected to attend Friday’s summit, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, MicroStrategy chair Michael Saylor, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov and Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
11%. That is how much Bitcoin’s price has surged over the past week, largely driven by Trump’s strategic reserve announcement. The price of the token, however, slipped below $90,000 once again on Friday—falling below $85,000 before recovering to around $88,875. Despite being boosted by Trump’s announcement, the price of the world's most valuable cryptocurrency remains 18.4% below its all-time high of $109,114—which it hit on the day of Trump’s inauguration.
Further Reading
Trump Announces ‘Crypto Strategic Reserve’—Here’s What To Know (Forbes)