Warren Questions Beast Industries Over Apparent Crypto Aspirations Following Acquisition of Banking App Designed for Teens

"Beast Industries is primarily an entertainment and consumer product company - and any foray into financial services, particularly services aimed at children - must be done with great care and in compliance with the law."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, Founder of Beast Industries, and Jeffrey Housenbold, Chief Executive Officer, raising concerns about Beast Industries' recent acquisition of Step, a financial technology app designed to provide banking services to children. Step has been purchased by Beast Industries - a company that has built its brand appealing to teenagers - and that the company has expressed interest in expanding into decentralized finance (DeFi). These developments raise serious questions about whether young Step customers will be adequately protected.

In the letter, Senator Warren outlines the risks and implications of Beast Industries' acquisition of Step, and the potential for the youth-oriented company to expand its offerings and services into cryptocurrency and DeFi.

"Despite Step's careful claims that crypto investing by minors was only with the permission of a parent or guardian, Step published resources encouraging kids to pressure their parents into crypto investments," wrote the Senator. "Step, for example, produced a video titled 'How to Talk to Your Parents About Investing in Crypto,' which was targeted at kids whose parents 'want nothing to do with crypto,'.... The video coaches children on how to convince their parents to let them make investments their parents may not want and includes specific scripts for children to use while talking to their parents."

Ranking Member Warren flagged the risks of Step's partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust. Evolve was a central player in the 2024 Synapse bankruptcy, in which a court mediator found that up to $96 million in customer funds could not be located. That same year, the Federal Reserve brought an enforcement action against Evolve for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and compliance programs, and the bank confirmed a data breach that exposed customer data on the dark web. Given that Step's users include minors, Warren expressed serious concern about the security of their personal and financial information.

She requested that Beast Industries provide answers to detailed questions about its plans for Step no later than April 3, 2026.

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