New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brings cryptocurrency holdings to the Pentagon’s top post, with financial disclosures showing he owns between $5,000 and $15,000 in Bitcoin amid his broader support for digital assets.
“Look at [Donald] Trump, making bitcoin great again,” Hegseth said during a Fox News segment in November after Bitcoin initially surged past $80,000. “All it took was signaling to that market that they weren’t going to be overregulated. Trump embraced them.”
The Senate confirmed Hegseth as defense secretary Friday in a 50-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The narrow victory came despite concerns about his qualifications and personal conduct, marking only the second time a vice president has cast a deciding vote for a Cabinet nominee.
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Financial records released Jan. 13 show Hegseth earned over $5 million in the past two years, mostly from his Fox News hosting role and speaking engagements. Beyond his Bitcoin holdings, the documents reveal he collected $4.6 million from Fox News and up to $1 million from a Baltimore rental property.
The Army veteran and former Fox & Friends Weekend host has openly backed cryptocurrency, praising its independence from government control.
During Coinbase Global's (NASDAQ:COIN) 2021 IPO, he called it the “tip of the iceberg” for digital currency adoption.
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“Crypto has arrived. Bitcoin is not a person, it’s not a company, it’s not a place. It’s tougher to stop than you would think,” Hegseth said at the time, according to cryptocurrency publication The Block.
Hegseth takes control of the Pentagon as Bitcoin trades around $100,000, potentially reacting to shifting political winds. His dual role as both a Bitcoin investor and America’s new defense chief arrives as digital assets face less scrutiny from the federal government.
The position puts him among the highest-ranking U.S. officials to publicly hold cryptocurrency, though his Bitcoin stake represents a small portion of his multimillion-dollar portfolio.
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