Elizabeth Warren and Five Other Democratic Senators Sent a Joint Letter to Janet Yellen, Harshly Criticizing the Trump Administration's Plan to Include Crypto Assets in the National Strategic Reserves

On May 1, 2025, Elizabeth Warren, a senior Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and five colleagues sent a joint letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen

A senior Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Elizabeth Warren, and five colleagues on Monday slammed the Trump administration’s plan to include crypto assets in the national strategic reserves, adding that it “may pose a systemic threat to the stability of the U.S. financial system.”

In a 12-page letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the Democrats highlighted the risks posed by cryptocurrency price fluctuations, regulatory arbitrage, and the potential for abuse by the Trump family, who are known to have interests in the crypto industry. They also raised concerns about the transfer of interests between the Trump family and foreign investors.

According to recent reports, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) (OTC: WLFT), a crypto company controlled by the Trump family, is planning to issue a stablecoin called USD1, which is expected to reach a $2 billion investment agreement with the Abu Dhabi government-backed venture capital MGX. In the list of shareholders disclosed on the official website of WLFI, Trump family members collectively own a staggering 42% of the shares.

This isn't the first time Democrats have targeted Trump on his crypto policy. Earlier this month, Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, scuttled a joint hearing on the Crypto Market Structure Act, which was being pushed by the Republicans.

Instead, Waters, who is also the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, has been pressing ahead with an investigation into the Trump family's crypto investments. She recently wrote to committee chairman Hill to continue probing into the administration’s financial dealings, noting that the administration has flouted congressional oversight.

"As we discussed previously, there are serious allegations of corruption, fraud, and abuse of power by the Trump family in their cryptocurrency investments and business ventures," wrote Maxine Waters in a letter seen by Foresight News. "This is a matter of great concern to me and to many members of Congress."

She added: "When the Trump family has made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by issuing meme coins (TRUMP) and investing in DeFi projects, any bill that attempts to relax regulations will become a tool for money laundering."

The ‘Genetic Confrontation’ of Bipartisan Encryption Policies: Democratic Party From ‘Financial Stability’ to ‘Political Reckoning’

Known as a "crypto hawk", Elizabeth Warren has been consistent in her stance since 2017. Back then, she drafted the Cryptocurrency Act, aiming to bring 90% of crypto assets into the scope of securities regulation, requiring exchanges to register with the SEC and disclose user information.

This proposition was further escalated in the joint letter in 2025, where she proposed that the size of cryptocurrency reserves should be limited to 0.5% of federal assets, and that reserve assets must be held in compliant stablecoins such as USDC.

Among the six Democratic members of Congress who jointly sent the letter, Stephanie Murphy, the Democratic leader of the House Financial Services Committee, has been focusing on the issue of "national security". She presented FBI investigation data at a congressional hearing on April 30: money laundering transactions through cryptocurrencies increased by 370% year-on-year in 2024, out of which 62% involved Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern terrorist organizations.

"When the Trump family conducts crypto transactions with Middle Eastern sovereign funds, we must be vigilant about whether this poses a new geopolitical risk," Murphy highlighted.

Stablecoins, as the core infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem, have become the focus of recent bipartisan bargaining. The Republican-led GENIUS Act attempted to establish a federal regulatory framework for the issuance of stablecoins, but the Democrats suddenly changed sides on May 4, with nine Democratic senators jointly opposing the existing version and demanding the strengthening of anti-money laundering and foreign issuer reviews. This shift directly caused the probability of the bill passing the Senate to drop sharply to 37%.

Republican Party: From ‘Innovation Freedom’ to ‘Strategic Layout’

In stark contrast to the Democratic Party, the Trump administration is systematically promoting the "strategization" of crypto assets. The executive order signed on January 24 established a digital asset working group led by David Sacks, the AI and crypto commissioner and "crypto czar", and required a report within 180 days that included a stablecoin regulatory framework and national crypto reserve standards.

On March 6, Trump went a step further and signed another executive order, announcing that the 200,000 bitcoins (BTC) (about $18 billion) held by the federal government would be included in the national strategic reserve, and exploring the inclusion of assets such as XRP and SOL in the reserve system.

Behind this rapid policy shift is the Republican Party's far-reaching layout for "digital dollar hegemony". An analysis by the strategic consulting firm Rhodium Group pointed out that Trump's new crypto policy attempts to migrate the settlement function of the US