White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett disclosed holding between $1 million and $5 million in Coinbase Global stock as of December 31, 2025, according to CNBC's review of his latest annual financial disclosure. Federal disclosure forms report assets in value ranges rather than exact amounts, so the filing does not show the precise number of Coinbase shares or the exact value of the position. Because the document only covers assets held through the end of 2025, it also does not establish whether Hassett retained, reduced, or sold the investment during 2026.
Hassett served on Coinbase's Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council from 2021 until January 2025, when he entered the White House. An earlier disclosure reported in June 2025 had already placed the value of his vested Coinbase stock within the same $1 million-to-$5 million range and showed he received more than $50,000 in compensation from Coinbase for advisory work.
The disclosure has drawn attention because the National Economic Council helps coordinate economic policy across the administration, including decisions affecting digital-asset companies. Three days after President Donald Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order creating the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by White House crypto adviser David Sacks. The group worked on proposals covering crypto regulation, stablecoins, banking access, tax treatment, and a possible national digital-asset stockpile. CNBC reported that the National Economic Council played an important part in developing the administration's crypto agenda.
Hassett told CNBC that he has stayed away from cryptocurrency matters after consulting government ethics officials. The White House also defended his conduct, saying he has fully complied with ethical requirements. However, former SEC ethics lawyer Shira Pavis Minton Kantor told CNBC that the size of Hassett's holding represented a "significant conflict of interest" or, at minimum, created the appearance of one. The report did not say that Hassett had violated a federal ethics law or participated in a specific decision benefiting Coinbase.
Separately, Hassett defended Trump's proposed $5,000 dividend payment plan, saying it could be done in a fiscally responsible way, though he did not list specific spending cuts or revenue measures. The proposal would cost more than $1 trillion and could move through a reconciliation bill. His Coinbase stake remained a point of scrutiny amid the administration's crypto policy work.
Coinbase entered the Trump administration's second term after spending heavily on political advocacy during the 2024 election cycle. The exchange joined Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz in backing the Fairshake super PAC. In February 2025, the SEC voted to dismiss its civil enforcement case against Coinbase with prejudice, ending litigation that had accused the exchange of operating as an unregistered securities platform and offering an unregistered staking service.
