Former Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen is likely to become the next U.S. Treasury Secretary.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Yellen in the coming days, positioning the longtime economist to succeed current Secretary Steven Mnuchin. While Yellen hasn’t said a lot about bitcoin, she is clearly familiar with the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and spoke about both while she was still in office.
It’s unclear how Yellen might approach crypto regulations, or if they’ll even be a priority. However, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) all either work closely with the Treasury Department or are bureaus within the department.
Razvan Suprovici, founder of crypto gifting service Biterica, gifted $20 in bitcoin to Yellen after her 2018 remarks, though at the time she said she hadn’t looked into the gift. If she kept the funds, they would be worth about $60 at press time.
And of course, there was that time someone flashed a “buy bitcoin” note behind Yellen while she was testifying in 2017.