Virginia Canter, who serves as chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund, said the arrangement raises concerns about conflicts of interest. "I think he's got a major conflict of interest, or the appearance of one," she said. Canter, a former ethics attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, argued that a sweeping crypto recusal would have pulled Kevin Hassett away from a core function of his position — bringing together economic policy among agencies such as the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, each of which had a seat on the crypto working group.