Hassett kept up to $5 million Coinbase stake as Trump reshaped crypto policy

Kevin Hassett held up to $5 million in Coinbase amid Trump crypto push Skip Navigation Markets Business Investing Tech Politics & Policy Video Watchlist Investing Club PRO Livestream Menu Key Points National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s new financial disclosure shows he still held $1 million to $5 million in vested Coinbase shares at the end of 2025. Hassett said last year he had recused himself from crypto matters while ethics officials determined how to handle the investment. Trump’s digital-assets working group was housed within the NEC, and its final report named Hassett’s deputy as the council’s representative. Former White House ethics lawyer Virginia Canter told CNBC the holding raised a “major conflict of interest” concern and questioned whether a broad recusal could have kept Hassett from participating in a significant part of the administration’s economic agenda. The White House said Hassett is in "full compliance" with its "ethical requirements," including recusal from crypto-related matters. In this article COIN Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett held between $1 million and $5 million worth of shares in crypto giant Coinbase at the end of 2025, as President Donald Trump's administration rapidly rewrote federal cryptocurrency policy . Hassett's previously unreported 2025 annual financial disclosure lists the investment as vested Coinbase shares. He formerly worked as an advisor to the company. The filing shows he had not fully divested from the company nearly 11 months into Trump's second term. While the filing was recently released, it doesn't indicate whether Hassett still holds the shares as it covers only 2025. Three days after taking office in 2025, Trump established the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets within the NEC. His executive order included Hassett's White House position or a designee as a member and required the group's final recommendations to reach Trump through Hassett's office. The group, chaired by the then-White House crypto advisor David Sacks , went on to propose sweeping regulatory changes to digital-asset markets, banking, stablecoin and taxation. The administration has also reversed Biden-era crypto policies , created a government bitcoin reserve and pushed Congress toward a broader federal regulatory framework. Hassett, who advised Coinbase from 2021 until January 2025 before joining the White House, has said he stayed out of crypto matters while ethics officials addressed his investment. The White House declined to answer CNBC's questions about whether Hassett still holds the shares or whether holding them has prevented him from working on matters within his office's purview. When CNBC asked about the shares in June 2025, Hassett said he had not sold them because he did not want to create the appearance that he was timing a sale. He said he had received guidance from "the ethics people" and was determining "what needs to be done." "Meanwhile, I have recused from any matter that's related to crypto," Hassett said on CNBC's " Squawk Box ." The White House, in response to CNBC's questions about the new financial disclosure, indicated that recusal continues. "Since day one, Kevin Hassett has and continues to be in full compliance with all ethical requirements, including his recusal from all cryptocurrency-related matters," White House spokesperson Kush Desai told CNBC in a statement. The holdings raise questions, an ethics expert said, about whether Hassett's Coinbase stake created potential overlaps with his official duties and whether managing those conflicts through recusal sidelined one of Trump's top economic advisors from a major policy priority housed within the council he leads. "I think he's got a major conflict of interest, or the appearance of one," said Virginia Canter , chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund. What remains unclear is what a recusal means in practice — which meetings, decisions or policy discussions has Hassett avoided and how much of his work as NEC director has it affected. The crypto working group's final report lists Robin Colwell, a deputy assistant to the president for national economic policy, as the NEC representative rather than Hassett. But recusal can only solve so much, said Canter, who previously served as an ethics lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission. If Hassett's recusal extended broadly across crypto, it could have sidelined him from a major part of his job, she said, like coordinating economic policy across agencies such as the Treasury and Commerce Departments, the SEC and the Com