In 2022 for the WSJ, Trump's Fed pick Kevin Warsh argued for wholesale CBDC. It was his solution to the waning of USD dominance. This is also in the context of the current CLARITY Act having a provision about prohibiting CBDCs. He also criticized crypto as "fraudulent" and "worthless." He said stablecoins were a Biden strategy that were not "sufficiently strong and reliable" which couldn't handle stress and would need govt bailouts. The WSJ op-ed was an abridged version of his chapter in the American Enterprise Institute's 2022 book "American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Strengthen the Social Contract and Save the Country’s Finances" edited by Paul Ryan. In the longer chapter, Warsh said stablecoins would be "worthless" in the long run. He did offer some qualifiers that the CBDC should incorporate blockchain technology (I think he doesn't know what blockchain is) and that stablecoins could partially work (albeit still risky) with stricter reserve regulation that we saw in the 2025 GENIUS Act. Interestingly, in the final acknowledgements (thank yous) section, Warsh chose to thank Mark Carney first. The big question one might ask is why did Trump, who wants to make America the "crypto capital of the world" and maximize stablecoin capacity to protect the dollar system, pick Warsh, a man that minced no words about his criticism of crypto and stablecoins and desire for a CBDC?

Warsh said he didn't like retail CBDC because of some vague semantics on privacy but what seems more important was the diminishment of commercial bank power and the expansion of central bank power and visibility. He calls this anti-democratic but honestly he's really referring to a scenario where the Fed becomes way more connected to the subjective discretion of elected politicians aka more democratic. For an elaboration on why making the central bank more democratic in this sense is interesting and possibly good read Leah Downey's Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.

@markgoodw_in @TheStalwart @CasPiancey @resistancemoney @g_shullenberger

Lol oh boy is that a different tune from 2022 to July of 2025. Warsh really softening his points on crypto and even positively name dropping Mark Andreessen. And no real mention of wholesale CBDC in the way he did in 2022.

So in April of 2018 Warsh was an investor in the stablecoin Basis which raised $133m but had to shut down in Dec of 2018 due to regulatory problems. Specifically, the uncertainty if cryptos were considered securities or not. Maybe this is source of Warsh's previous sour taste for stablecoins. Given CLARITY Act is magic wanding cryptos as commodities maybe he sees a new path. Also he had "advisory roles with crypto index manager Bitwise." (according @BitcoinMagazine)

All that tough talk in 2022 but doing the dog and pony show dance on CNBC to pump Bitcoin.