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The Supreme Court just told the president he can fire the heads of most independent agencies whenever he wants. The Federal Reserve, however, gets to keep its bodyguard.
On June 29, the Court issued two landmark decisions that redraw the boundaries of presidential power over federal agencies. In a 5-4 ruling in Trump v. Cook, the justices affirmed that President Trump cannot remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook without cause. In a separate 6-3 decision issued the same day, the Court effectively dismantled for-cause removal protections for the leaders of most other independent agencies.
The Fed gets a firewall, everyone else gets a pink slip
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion in Trump v. Cook, and his reasoning hinged on what he described as the unique historical and institutional role of the Federal Reserve.
Cook herself responded to the ruling by saying it affirms the Fed’s independence, which she called vital for price stability and maximum employment.
The companion ruling, decided 6-3, went the other direction for nearly everyone else. Agency heads who previously enjoyed for-cause protections, meaning they could only be fired for specific reasons like misconduct or neglect, can now be dismissed at the president’s discretion.
This wasn’t entirely unexpected. Earlier orders from the Court in 2025 had already begun establishing Fed-specific protections in removal-power cases, signaling that the justices saw the central bank as categorically different from other independent agencies.
What this means for crypto and financial markets
Neither ruling mentions cryptocurrencies, digital assets, or blockchain. But the downstream implications for crypto markets are real.
There’s the question of crypto banking access. Custodia Bank and other crypto-native financial institutions have been engaged in ongoing litigation seeking access to Federal Reserve master accounts, the accounts that let banks plug into the US payments system. The Court’s decision to carve out the Fed as uniquely independent doesn’t directly resolve those cases, but it reinforces the Fed’s authority to make its own decisions about who gets access to its infrastructure.
The agencies that just lost their for-cause protections include the SEC and the CFTC, regulators that directly oversee crypto markets. If the president can remove agency heads at will, regulatory priorities can shift faster.
The absence of any crypto-specific language in either opinion is itself telling. The Court is prioritizing foundational questions about the structure of government over the specifics of emerging technology. That means the crypto industry’s biggest legal battles, from token classification to banking access, will continue to be fought in lower courts and through agency rulemaking rather than through sweeping Supreme Court pronouncements.
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