- Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a 12-page letter to MrBeast and Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold demanding answers about the acquisition of the teen app, Step.
- Step used scripted YouTube videos to coach minors on how to pressure their parents into buying cryptocurrency, a practice it claims to have ended.
- The acquisition of Step was backed by a $200 million investment from Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Tom Lee’s ether (ETH) treasury company.
- MrBeast must respond to the senator’s questions by an April 3 deadline.
On March 24, 2026, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren publicly questioned why YouTube star Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson acquired the teen financial app Step. A 12-page letter demands answers about the app, which provided word-for-word scripts for minors to coerce parents into buying crypto. According to a tweet by Jason Mikula, the referenced coaching videos have since been deleted from YouTube.
Step, which claims about 7 million users, previously promoted crypto for teens as “the first platform” to allow such activity with guardian consent. The script it provided included lines like, “Mom, you’ve had Apple stock forever, Bitcoin has just as much potential.” However, Warren’s investigation suggests the app built a consent bypass toolkit with these tutorials.
Consequently, despite claiming to have shut down crypto investing in May 2024, the script remained live on YouTube as recently as December 28, 2024. MrBeast’s acquisition of Step in early 2026 followed a $200 million investment from Tom Lee’s company, Bitmine Immersion Technologies. Interestingly, reports state Bitmine has lost more money investing in ETH than even FTX’s customer deposits.
Meanwhile, MrBeast’s channel has a massive young audience, with 39% of viewers aged 13 to 17. His company, Beast Holdings LLC, filed a trademark for “MrBeast Financial” in late 2025, mentioning crypto exchange services according to a Yahoo Finance report. The company now faces an April 3 deadline to respond to the senator’s detailed inquiries.
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