The Senate will have to decide on Kevin Warsh chosen by Trump to lead the Fed

Since his return to business, Donald Trump has been applying his method wherever he goes. In the corridors of American finance, his “clear-out” has made serious waves. Gary Gensler, the man who tense the crypto-sphere, was the first to pack up. Other personalities less favorable to digital assets have followed suit. Remaining was Jerome Powell, the anti-rate cut, the one who still resisted. Today, Trump sends his successor to the Senate. Kevin Warsh, a proud pro-Bitcoin, will have to face the legislative trial by fire.

Trump’s bet: Kevin Warsh, first pro-Bitcoin to head the Fed

First, the gesture of replacing the Federal Reserve number one is eminently political. Trump officially sent the nomination of Kevin Warsh to the Senate on March 4, 2026. Four years as Fed chairman, fourteen years as governor. The objective is clearly displayed: replace Jerome Powell on May 15, the deadline of his mandate.

Next, Warsh’s profile decidedly stands out from the ordinary central bankers. A lawyer by training, he sat on the Fed from 2006 to 2011 under Bush then Obama. He went through the subprime crisis alongside Ben Bernanke without ever losing footing. Now a researcher at Stanford, he frequents conservative circles without making media waves.

But his statements about bitcoin draw the attention of crypto investors worldwide. In 2021, on CNBC, he launched a phrase that became famous in the industry: “If you are under forty, bitcoin is your new gold“.

In 2025, in an interview at the Hoover Institution, he hammered the point with calm and determined assurance: 

Bitcoin does not make me nervous. I consider it an important asset that can help inform policymakers when they are doing things well or badly.

Never before had a central banker spoken like this about the queen of cryptocurrencies.

The Senate, battleground between Republicans and Democrats

Yet, the path of Warsh towards the Fed resembles an obstacle course scattered with pitfalls. The Senate Banking Committee must first hear him at length, then vote on his confirmation in the assembly. But obstacles accumulate before him at a worrying speed. 

On the Democratic side, the hostility is open and uncompromising. Elizabeth Warren, the most feared senator in Washington, has already called him a “puppet of Donald Trump at the Fed”.

Chuck Schumer, minority leader, demands he solemnly swear to preserve the independence of the monetary institution. More surprisingly, a Republican is throwing a wrench in the works. Thom Tillis, from North Carolina, threatens to block any nomination until the DOJ’s investigation of Powell is closed. This investigation concerns renovations of the Fed building, costing 2.5 billion dollars. 

Without Tillis’s precious vote, the Republican majority counts for very little. The committee meeting promises to be particularly explosive.

Rates, inflation, and geopolitics: the headache awaiting the next Fed boss

Beyond political quarrels, Warsh will have to face a complex and shifting economic reality. He wants to cut rates, as Trump has been insisting for months. His main argument is based on artificial intelligence and its promises. According to him, productivity gains linked to AI will reduce costs without rekindling inflation. 

But Fed economists do not share this overflowing and risky optimism. They consider AI too slow to produce concrete effects on the real economy. Moreover, the conflict in Iran, five days old, is driving up oil prices. A real bomb for inflation, already stubborn and closely monitored. 

Markets, meanwhile, no longer bet on rate cuts before July at the earliest. Warsh will also have to manage Powell’s cumbersome legacy: 6.5 trillion dollars in assets on the balance sheet. That’s 4 trillion more than in 2011, when he left the Fed. He who hates quantitative easing might sell assets. 

But cutting rates while selling is pulling left and right simultaneously. No one has ever tested this risky combination in monetary history.

Key figures of the game-changing nomination

• May 15, 2026: deadline for Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair to end;
• 6.5 trillion: assets held by the Fed, 4 trillion more than in 2011;
• 72,425 dollars: current price of BTC, tentative amid political uncertainties;
• 2.5 billion: amount of renovations to the Fed building at the heart of the DOJ investigation.

To optimize the current situation, Trump’s political promises are no longer enough. A former adviser to the president believes that concrete actions on the economy must now be taken. Warsh’s nomination is only a first step, certainly important and symbolic. But without tangible results, market enthusiasm risks falling flat.