United States Senator Elizabeth Warren publicly questioned the existence of a conflict of interest by Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Walsh at the Senate Banking Commission hearing. One of the points of contention was that Walsh had received an alleged payment of $100 million a few days before the swearing-in, and that he had failed to identify the payer at the hearing.

Hearings with sources of funding

Warren directly asked at the hearing who the bulk of the payment came from. Walsh did not respond positively, but merely indicated that he would comply with the disclosure requirements of the United States Government Ethics Office.

Warren argued that a refusal to account for the source of funds would call into question the independence of the Federal Reserve, a key financial institution. She also criticized the practice as “opening space for corruption”.

WLFI has been brought into question focus.

At the same hearing, Warren also extended the issue to World Liberty Financial (WLFI) in relation to the Trump family encryption. She claims that the project generated about $1.4 billion in revenue in 2025 and is currently seeking United States bank licences.

According to her, once a licence had been obtained, the company might also in the future apply for more federal-level financial services, including direct access to the Federal Reserve payment system through the main account.

Walsh used to support digital assets.

It was mentioned that Walsh's attitude towards encrypted assets was different from that of former Chairman Powell. He had publicly stated that bitcoin was an important asset for policy development and that encrypted currencies had become a long-term component of the global financial system.

Its financial disclosure documents also show that Walsh held a number of investments related to the encryption industry, including Polychain Capital, dYdX, Dapper Labs and assets related to Solana and Optimism.

Markets still raise interest during pricing year

At the macro level, there has also been a change in the market ' s judgement of the Fed ' s path. At the beginning of 2026, traders were expected to experience a number of interest-rate reductions during the year, but pricing has now shifted in a more restrictive direction.

  • The October rate is 59%.
  • The probability of a further increase in December is 73.4%.
  • One or two hikes during the year