KEY POINTS
- Elizabeth Warren is expected to chair the Senate Banking Committee in January and could use oversight tools without passing any law.
- Her earlier letters cover OCC trust charters, prediction-market safeguards and Bitmain's role in US mining.
- Fines or charter revocations would still have to come from the agencies that hold that authority.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is expected to chair the Senate Banking Committee from January, after Democrats won control of the chamber, and CryptoSlate reports that she could pressure crypto firms and regulators without any new legislation. The chair decides which hearings the committee holds and which matters it investigates.
According to CryptoSlate, Warren's existing requests focus on decisions already made rather than on what Congress might allow next. In a May letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, she asked for applications and legal analyses behind nine crypto-related charter decisions, including Coinbase's. She also sought communications involving the White House or the president's family, with a June 1 deadline.
Coinbase announced final approval of its national trust company on Nov. 9, three days after the charter took effect, and the OCC now supervises its custody business. Warren has argued that some firms received permission for bank-like activities with fewer obligations than traditional banks. The OCC holds its own reading of the law, and the report notes that the terms of each approval determine what a company may actually offer. Ripple's approval, for example, covers custody and stablecoin reserve management.
Prediction markets are another area. In September, Warren and other committee Democrats asked current chair Tim Scott for a public hearing on the topic. On Oct. 28, Warren and Republican Sen. John Curtis wrote to Kalshi and Polymarket about how they police election markets, setting a Nov. 3 deadline. A Nov. 9 letter from Warren and Sen. Jeff Merkley to White House Counsel Will Scharf asked about a former presidential aide's prediction-market trading case and about protections for nonpublic information, with answers requested by Nov. 23.
CryptoSlate also points to a March letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Warren asked how the department assessed security risks from Bitmain, a Chinese maker of bitcoin mining machines, and whether its links to American Bitcoin, co-founded by Eric Trump, affected those decisions. Any restriction would need a legal basis, and the report says limits on new machines could delay deliveries while curbs on spare parts could raise upkeep costs for US miners.
The report stresses the limits of the role. The Senate Agriculture Committee oversees the CFTC, so a Banking Committee inquiry would have to fit its own jurisdiction over banks and securities markets. Subpoenas can be issued under current rules by the chair with the agreement of the top minority member, or by majority vote, and the committee will set its rules for the next Congress when it reorganizes. Companies can contest broad requests, and privilege or confidentiality can restrict what is obtained or published.
Fines or charter revocations would still have to come from the agencies that granted the approvals. Even so, CryptoSlate notes that an inquiry can tie up lawyers and executives for months and force public explanations of earlier decisions. The records could also back the original approvals by showing that regulators identified risks and required safeguards beforehand.
