Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington on February 5, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday called on the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to ensure that “taxpayer funds are not used to bail out crypto billionaires and other highly leveraged crypto investors.”
The Massachusetts Democratic Party called on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to: Bitcoin The popular cryptocurrency has fallen about 50% since hitting its all-time high in October, and continues to decline.
“Transferring wealth from American taxpayers to crypto billionaires is not only highly unpopular, it could directly enrich President (Donald) Trump and his family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial,” Warren warned in a letter to Bessent and Powell about the potential bailout.
He noted that both the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have authority to provide financial support to banks and other entities during financial crises.
“At a recent hearing, in an exchange regarding authority to bail out the crypto industry, Secretary Bessent was asked, “Will our taxpayer dollars be used for crypto assets?” Warren wrote, referring to the secretary’s Feb. 6 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.
“Rather than simply answering ‘no,’ he deflected by saying, ‘[We]are holding on to the seized Bitcoin,'” Warren wrote. “If the US government has any plans to intervene in the current Bitcoin crash, it is very unclear.”
“Ultimately, any government intervention to stabilize Bitcoin would unfairly benefit crypto billionaires,” said Warren, the No. 1 Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
“Government agencies must refrain from supporting Bitcoin or transferring wealth from taxpayers to crypto billionaires through direct purchases, guarantees, or liquidity facilities.”
The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Warren’s letter.
The letter arrived on the same day that World Liberty Financial hosted the first World Liberty Forum for business leaders at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Warren said in the letter that Bitcoin’s decline was “amplified by a cascading liquidation of leveraged positions.”
She wrote that President Trump’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, “sold approximately 173 wrapped Bitcoins.”
“This transaction was made to repay USDC’s $11.75 million in stablecoin debt, thereby avoiding liquidation when the Bitcoin price fell below $63,000,” she wrote.
“This crash has hit crypto billionaires hard as the value of Bitcoin continues to plummet. Crypto billionaire Michael Saylors Strategy, Inc., one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin, has reportedly seen its stock price fall by nearly 20% since the beginning of the year,” Warren wrote.
“Other major Bitcoin investors have also suffered losses, including Binance founder Changpeng Chao, who reportedly lost nearly $30 billion, and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, who reportedly lost $7 billion.”
Elsewhere in the letter, Warren said federal financial institutions “need to strengthen protections for individual crypto investors.”
He noted that a record $17 billion was lost or stolen in 2025 due to cryptocurrency fraud.
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect that Bitcoin has lost about half of its value since its October high. A previous version incorrectly described the extent of the decline in value.
