Warren readies Senate Banking probes of Trump family crypto firms, prediction markets

Documents, prediction markets and an AI bubble

A Warren Banking Committee aide told Politico (according to Decrypt's report) that the list of people who'd want to hold onto their records is a long one.

"Big Tech CEOs, Administration officials, Trump family crypto businesses, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations should preserve their documents and prepare to answer tough questions"

That's a wide net. The panel oversees banking, housing, cryptocurrency and the Federal Reserve, and its chair can call hearings and launch investigations (Warren doesn't hold the gavel yet).

According to the aide, Warren wants to end what she's called a "Wild West-style lack of oversight" of prediction markets, which she says has allowed insiders to profit. She also plans to warn about threats to financial stability, including a potential AI bubble, and intends to keep working with Republican China hawks to restrict exports of advanced AI chips.

World Liberty Financial charter in view

Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with her thinking, that Warren is likely to investigate the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's August decision to grant a conditional bank charter to Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, Decrypt noted. She's also likely to look at the administration's firings of financial agency staff and its efforts to shut down the CFPB, per Reuters.

None of this comes out of nowhere.

Warren has argued that federal regulators' approval of national trust charters for crypto firms, including Coinbase and Ripple, was illegal. She's said the CFTC has been "steamrolled" by the prediction market and crypto firms it oversees, and she's questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over a Tether loan to a trust tied to his children. She was also one of the leading opponents of the Clarity Act, which stalled in the Senate this year.

Market structure fight resets

Democrats plan to push a broader crypto market structure bill once they take control of Congress. Sen. Tim Scott, the current Banking chair, has argued that without market structure rules, crypto is left in "the wild, wild West."

In an essay for Time (as cited by Decrypt), Warren argued Democrats won by "being populist economic fighters," and acknowledged that Trump has embraced the nickname "Mr. Veto" while urging Democrats to send him bills anyway.

The White House isn't conceding the framing. A spokesperson told Reuters, per Decrypt, that Trump is willing to work with anyone, but that "sham investigations and radical left policies" would undermine those efforts.