Warren’s letter comes amid heightened scrutiny of the crypto industry and the federal government’s role in digital asset markets. Both the Treasury Department and the Fed have authorities that allow them to provide financial support to banks and other entities during periods of market stress, powers that were used extensively during past financial crises. Warren said it remains "deeply unclear what, if any, plans the U.S. government currently has to intervene in the current Bitcoin selloff."
Bitcoin has dropped about 50% since reaching a high in October, a slide that Warren said has been amplified by cascading liquidations of leveraged positions. The downturn has rattled major investors and companies with significant Bitcoin exposure.
Digital assets in the U.S.In her letter, Warren argued that government intervention would disproportionately benefit wealthy investors and industry insiders. She warned that a bailout "would be deeply unpopular to transfer wealth from American taxpayers to cryptocurrency billionaires" and said it could also enrich President Donald Trump and his family through their links to DeFi venture World Liberty Financial.
Warren’s crypto skepticism"The crypto falloff underscores why we need to make sure there are ordinary, commonsense consumer protections in place for this industry," she added. "Without cops on the beat, there’s too much risk that crypto billionaires, including Donald Trump and the Trump family, and other insiders take care of themselves and shove all the losses off on small traders or retirees.”
Asked whether taxpayer money could be deployed into crypto assets, Bessent said the Treasury is "retaining seized Bitcoin" but indicated there is no mechanism to direct banks to purchase Bitcoin or to use public funds to stabilize the market.
