Senate Confirms Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair in the Closest Vote in Modern History

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh on Wednesday as the next chair of the Federal Reserve in a 54-45 vote, the slimmest confirmation margin ever for a Fed chair and a marker of how polarized the central bank’s leadership has become. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only Democrat to cross party lines.

Warsh, 56, becomes the 11th Fed chair of the modern banking era. He replaces Jerome Powell, whose term as chair expires Friday. Powell will stay on the board as a governor, an unusual move that the Fed has not seen in nearly 80 years. Warsh’s first meeting as chair of the Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled for June 16-17.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

For the crypto industry, Warsh’s confirmation is more than just another Fed transition. He is the first incoming chair to have held direct equity exposure to digital assets. His financial disclosures show stakes in Flashnet, a Bitcoin payments startup, and ties to crypto index manager Bitwise and the stablecoin project Basis. Unchained reported in November 2024 that Warsh, then a Treasury Secretary contender, was an early angel investor in both Basis and Bitwise.

His public stance on Bitcoin specifically has been constructive. At a Hoover Institution event last year, Warsh called Bitcoin “an important asset” and “a very good policeman for policy,” arguing that its price reflects confidence in the Fed’s handling of inflation. “Bitcoin doesn’t trouble me,” he said.

He has separately described Bitcoin as the “new gold” for investors under 40 and called a U.S. central bank digital currency a “bad policy choice” in his confirmation hearing. That combination lines up with the CLARITY Act framework Congress is debating, which favors private stablecoins and excludes a Fed-issued retail CBDC.

The crypto-friendly framing comes with a hawkish caveat. Warsh has long called for a smaller Fed balance sheet and criticized quantitative easing, and last year publicly called for “regime change” at the central bank. When Trump’s intention to nominate him became clear in late January, Bitcoin sold off to roughly $81,000 as traders priced in tighter financial conditions, wiping out roughly $1.8 billion in leveraged positions.

President Donald Trump has called for rapid rate cuts, but Warsh’s confirmation hearing testimony emphasized inflation control. Whether he delivers the cuts the White House wants remains the open question heading into June.