Kevin Warsh was confirmed Wednesday as the 17th Federal Reserve Chair, succeeding Jerome Powell whose term expires Friday. The 54-45 Senate vote was nearly party-line, with only Sen. John Fetterman crossing the aisle. Warsh has publicly criticized the Fed as overextended and has promised structural changes to how the institution operates, inheriting both buoyant markets and lingering inflation pressures.
For Armada's traditional repo desk, Warsh's tenure introduces meaningful uncertainty around SOFR dynamics, the Fed RRP facility's future size, and the pace of any rate adjustments. His skepticism of Fed interventionism could affect balance sheet policy and SLR calibration, reshaping dealer capacity and MMF behavior. The crypto desk should monitor whether Warsh's Fed takes a harder or softer line on crypto-adjacent bank supervision.