A Washington Post analysis of financial disclosure documents found that nominees and officials in the Trump administration held no less than $193 million in crypto and blockchain-linked assets.
The figure spans nearly 70 individuals, with holdings ranging from small investments to at least $120 million for a single appointee.
President Donald Trump, who reversed his earlier crypto skepticism to become the industry’s most powerful advocate, reported a personal stake of at least $51 million in digital assets.
Vice President JD Vance listed between $250,000 and $500,000 in Bitcoin. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disclosed between $1 million and $5 million. And Ken Howery, the PayPal co-founder tapped as ambassador to Denmark, topped the list with at least $122 million in digital assets.
Because disclosures report holdings in ranges rather than exact figures, the true total is almost certainly higher, reporters said.
Trump’s personal financial ties
Trump’s own financial entanglement with the industry runs deep. World Liberty Financial, a DeFi venture majority-owned by his family business, has become one of his top income sources.
The TRUMP meme token, launched in January 2025, briefly reached a market capitalization of about $8.7 billion before losing most of its value, per CoinGecko. Similarly, WLFI, the token tied to World Liberty Financial, fell more than 82% from its peak.
A recently released ethics filing shows that Trump and his family continued investing in crypto-related companies during the first quarter of 2026, including Coinbase, Strategy, and MARA Holdings. The largest disclosed transaction was a Coinbase stock purchase worth between $100,001 and $250,000.
The filing also revealed repeated buying and selling of Strategy shares, reflecting active trading in one of the companies most closely tied to Bitcoin’s market performance. Other purchases include crypto-adjacent and fintech firms such as Block, Robinhood, and SoFi Technologies.
The crypto-related trades represented a small fraction of the more than 2,000 securities transactions disclosed during the quarter, which also included multimillion-dollar trades in companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and Nvidia.
Policy moves since inauguration
Since taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning the creation of a central bank digital currency, established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve consolidating over 328,000 BTC (worth approximately $26 billion at current prices) across federal agencies, and directed the SEC to drop or pause litigation against more than a dozen crypto firms.
That last item is a sharp reversal from the Biden era, when regulators pursued the industry aggressively, particularly after the FTX collapse in late 2022 wiped out billions in customer funds.
Several of these officials came from the tech and venture capital worlds. Scott Kupor, the former managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, was nominated to lead the Office of Personnel Management.
Jonathan Gould, previously the top legal officer at blockchain firm Bitfury, was confirmed to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Regulators with personal stakes
Several of these officials hold authority directly over the regulatory frameworks that affect their own portfolios.
Bill Pulte, who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, disclosed between $1 million and $2 million in digital currencies. He recently directed the mortgage giants to begin counting crypto as assets for loan-risk assessments.
Multiple Justice Department officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, reported crypto holdings at a time when DOJ prosecutors have been told to pull back on certain crypto-related enforcement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard both told the Post they divested their holdings before or shortly after taking office. Others have pledged to do so within 90 days of confirmation.
