Waller has previously expressed positive views on stablecoins and DeFi.
U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to interview Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Wednesday as he vets potential successors to Chair Jerome Powell, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Waller is one of the five candidates for the next Fed Chair, alongside former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and current National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, who are widely viewed as the two leading contenders. Trump interviewed Warsh last week.
Waller, who joined the Fed’s Board of Governors following Trump’s nomination in 2020, is a supporter of crypto, particularly in stablecoins and DeFi.
“I wanted to send a message that this is a new era for the Federal Reserve in payments — the DeFi industry is not viewed with suspicion or scorn,” Waller said during the Fed’s Payments Innovation Conference in October. He also said he views stablecoins as “simply a new form of private money” that will coexist with other payment instruments.
On decentralized prediction markets platform Polymarket, Waller currently has a 15% chance of being nominated as the next chair, while Hassett holds 52% and Warsh holds 29%. Hassett, despite being considered the leading contender, faced pushback from high-level officials close to Trump, CNBC reported earlier this week.
Trump vs. Powell
Trump has been a vocal critic of current Fed Chair Powell, mainly over disagreements on the pace and depth of interest rate cuts.
Powell has overseen rate reductions at three consecutive Federal Open Market Committee meetings, bringing the benchmark rate to the current target range of 3.50% to 3.75%. While signaling a more dovish stance, Powell has also emphasized uncertainty around the path of future rate decisions. Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly pressed the Fed for deeper and faster cuts, calling for a benchmark of 1% or lower.
Waller has been the leading internal advocate for rate cuts, according to the WSJ. The Fed governor is receiving favorable views from Wall Street, the report said, as he made logically sound arguments for the Fed’s recent rate cuts and is deemed capable of navigating divisions within the Fed.
However, the report also said that Waller remains seen as a “heavy underdog,” citing his lack of a personal relationship with Trump compared with Hassett or Warsh.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week that Trump will likely announce his pick next month. Powell’s term as Fed Chair expires in May next year.
Meanwhile, some experts view the arrival of a new Fed Chair as a positive catalyst for the crypto market. Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Chairman Tom Lee recently said that a new Fed Chair will shift the central bank to a more dovish tone that will potentially translate into a market reversal.
