U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s 2025 annual financial disclosure lists Bitcoin held in a Coinbase wallet, with two separate entries producing a combined value of roughly $16,000 to $65,000, according to Bitcoinmagazine. The same filing shows he holds more in cash than in crypto: one bank account carries more than $1 million.
The filing covers 2025 and was released by the Office of Government Ethics, as reported by both Bitcoinmagazine and Decrypt. Hegseth was appointed Defense Secretary in January 2025, putting him in the most crypto-friendly administration the U.S. has had, Bitcoinmagazine noted. Decrypt reported that disclosure forms list ranges rather than exact figures, which is why the Bitcoin position cannot be pinned to a single number.
Also readBitcoin Holds $73K as Whales Accumulate — What It Takes to Reach $100K
Key facts
- Bitcoin appears under “other assets and income” as two entries in one Coinbase wallet: $15,001-$50,000 and $1,001-$15,000, for a combined $16,000 to $65,000, per Decrypt.
- The filing records the income type for both Bitcoin entries as capital gains.
- No Bitcoin purchases or sales above $1,000 appear in the filing’s transactions section, according to Decrypt.
- Retirement accounts held by Hegseth and his wife contain investments worth roughly $2.05 million to $4.35 million, including the Invesco QQQ Trust and the Apollo Diversified Real Estate Fund, Bitcoinmagazine reported.
- Two mortgages on a personal residence are listed, each in the $1,000,001 to $5,000,000 range, one taken out in 2022 and one in 2025 at an 8.5% interest rate, per Decrypt.
The crypto holding, and the cash beside it
Decrypt described one of the three U.S. bank accounts as the filing’s sharpest change: an account under the same description held between $15,001 and $50,000 in Hegseth’s December 2024 nominee disclosure, a detail Decrypt credited to CNBC. Because disclosures report ranges and the new filing gives no upper bound for that account, the two filings cannot be compared as totals. Bitcoinmagazine put the cash figure at $1 million for a bank account, while Decrypt said the filing shows at least $3.1 million across cash, retirement investments and Bitcoin. Neither outlet reported an exact cash figure for the account above $1 million.
The transactions section is dominated by stock sales in the weeks after Hegseth took office. On February 7, 2025 he sold Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell, all defense contractors, along with KKR and Blackstone, Decrypt reported. The Lockheed and Northrop stakes were each in the $1,001 to $15,000 range, and his ethics agreement did not specifically require him to sell them. About six weeks later he sold a wider list including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and Visa, and through 2025 he bought index funds instead. Bitcoinmagazine cited sales of Amazon, Microsoft and Apple stock.
Also readBitcoin Liquidation Heatmap Shows Liquidity Piling Above Price After $63.9K Imbalance Fill
The Trump comparison
Hegseth’s crypto position is modest next to the president’s. Bitcoinmagazine reported that President Donald Trump disclosed making more than $1.4 billion from family digital asset ventures, and that a Reuters investigation found his family — including sons Eric and Donald Jr. — made $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures through the end of April 2026. Decrypt cited Trump’s own June disclosure reporting more than $50 million in Bitcoin and over $1.2 billion in crypto venture earnings, including $635 million from his meme coin. Bitcoinmagazine reported that Trump last month pushed for the Clarity Act, which it described as landmark crypto legislation, to pass. Democrats have accused Trump of profiting from crypto while shaping policy on it; the White House has denied conflicts of interest.
Why it matters
A sitting defense secretary’s crypto exposure is now a public record item rather than a private matter, and the disclosure gives the administration’s critics a second data point: crypto wealth concentrated at the top of the government. The filing also shows that for Hegseth, Bitcoin is not a core position — cash and retirement funds dwarf it. The range-based format means the public still cannot say precisely how much Bitcoin he holds, only that it sits between two figures.
What to watch
Decrypt noted that Hegseth signed the report in May, an agency ethics official certified it in August, and the Office of Government Ethics certified it on September 18. The next comparable document will be his 2026 disclosure, which would show whether any Bitcoin was bought or sold after the 2025 reporting period.
Sources: Bitcoin Magazine, Decrypt
