May 15th marked the official end of the Powell era

Warsh, who succeeded him, holds over 20 crypto projects himself
DeFi L2 prediction markets, Bitcoin Lightning Network, all covered
His holdings are valued at over a billion dollars
The crypto world finally waited for someone from within to sit in the Federal Reserve
What exactly does he hold?
Over 20 projects covering the entire crypto ecosystem:
DeFi lending: Compound
Derivatives DEX: dYdX Lighter
L2 networks: Blast, Optimism
Prediction markets: Polymarket
BTC infrastructure: Flashnet (Lightning Network), Bitwise (BTC ETF issuer)
Venture capital: Polychain, Electric Capital
This is not someone who just “happens to hold some BTC”
He is an active player who has laid out the entire crypto industry chain
But the story isn’t that simple
Warsh is famously hawkish
Advocates for tightening monetary policy, shrinking the balance sheet, and high real interest rates
What does the crypto community love most? Easy money
What do they fear most? Hawkish policies
So the reaction to this appointment was quite surreal
When announced on January 30th, BTC immediately dropped 14%
The market priced him as the “worst-case scenario”
But he is also the Fed chair candidate with the highest praise for BTC in history
In 2021, he publicly said, “People under 40 see Bitcoin as the new gold”
Someone who supports BTC verbally but advocates for tightening monetary policy
Is this good news or bad news for crypto?
Short-term: liquidity tightens, speculative altcoins come under pressure
Mid-term: regulatory certainty, BTC’s “store of value” narrative endorsed at the national level
Long-term: someone with the identity of Fed chair has gone into crypto
This itself is the strongest signal of the industry’s legitimacy
And according to regulations, he must sell all crypto holdings within six months of confirmation
But his purchase of this has already been forever recorded in history
—
The biggest irony is
The crypto community has been saying we need decentralization, to escape the Fed
To build a financial system that doesn’t rely on central banks
But one day, the Fed chair is replaced by someone holding over 20 crypto projects
We didn’t escape the center; we became the center
We didn’t replace the Fed; we invaded the Fed
The final mile of the revolution
Is often the step of being co-opted
(Second from the left is Warsh)