Trump Crypto: Kevin Hassett Coinbase Stake Raises Conflict of Interest Concerns

In Trump crypto news, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett disclosed holding between $1M and $5M in vested Coinbase shares at the end of 2025, according to a previously unreported annual financial filing.

The stake sat on his books while the Trump administration rapidly rewrote federal crypto regulation, and the filing does not establish whether he still holds the shares in 2026.

That timing is the story. Hassett ran the council that housed Trump’s digital-assets working group even as his Coinbase position sat unresolved on paper, and Coinbase itself has been central to the regulatory rewrite now moving through Congress.

Trump Crypto News: What the Hassett Disclosure Shows

Hassett’s 2025 annual disclosure lists vested Coinbase Global Class A shares valued between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000. He served on Coinbase Asset Management’s advisory council from March 2021 until January 2025, when he joined the White House. The filing does not confirm whether he sold the shares afterward.

Three days after Trump’s second inauguration, an executive order established the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, with Hassett’s office named as a member. The group proposed significant changes to digital asset regulations and reversed Biden-era crypto policies, aligning with Coinbase’s lobbying efforts.

Hassett said he recused himself from crypto matters while ethics officials reviewed his holdings, and he chose not to sell the shares to avoid the appearance of timing. The White House confirmed his recusal remains in effect, declining to comment on whether he still owns the shares or whether it affected his economic-policy work.

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The Conflict-of-Interest Question

Virginia Canter, a former SEC ethics lawyer now at Democracy Defenders Fund, described the holding as a major conflict of interest or the appearance of one, according to the disclosure’s reporting.

She questioned whether a recusal broad enough to cover all crypto matters could have sidelined one of Trump’s top economic advisors from a defining priority of the administration – one that touched Treasury, Commerce, the SEC and the CFTC, all represented on the same working group Hassett’s council hosted.

What remains unclear is the practical scope of that recusal: which meetings Hassett skipped, which decisions he stepped back from, and how much of his NEC portfolio it touched.

The working group’s final report lists NEC deputy Robin Colwell as its representative rather than Hassett himself, suggesting at least some formal distance, but it doesn’t explain how crypto policy discussions were handled within a council he still directs.

Coinbase’s Stake in the Outcome of the CLARITY Act

Coinbase has more than a passive interest in how this policy fight resolves. The SEC dismissed its enforcement case against the exchange with prejudice just over a month into Trump’s term, a move regulators framed as part of a broader overhaul rather than a ruling on the case’s merits.

Coinbase was also a major backer of the Fairshake super PAC during the 2024 cycle, and CEO Brian Armstrong has met repeatedly with Trump and senior officials, including at the March 2025 White House crypto summit, context that shapes how Armstrong has talked about the regulatory environment under this administration.

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