The US Treasury Secretary called for the passage of the long-awaited crypto market structure bill this spring to reassure the industry amid recent market volatility.
Bessent calls for crypto market structure bill
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday urged U.S. lawmakers to quickly pass the stalled Crypto Market Structure bill, emphasizing the importance of getting the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of the spring legislative window.
In an interview with CNBC, Bessent claimed that some of the recent market volatility was “self-induced” due to some industry players’ reaction to the bill. He claimed that some digital asset companies blocked it, which was not “good for the entire crypto community.”
Notably, the long-awaited CLARITY Act has been stalled for nearly a month after the Senate Banking Committee released its bill. The legislation was heavily criticized by crypto industry leaders, who criticized several of its policies, including key restrictions for stablecoin issuers.
The Treasury Secretary believes that passage of the bill would “provide great comfort” to the market in a period of high volatility. Additionally, he pointed out that there is a bipartisan working group trying to advance the legislation, with Democrats “who want to work with Republicans to get a market structure bill.”
However, Bessent noted that the chances of reaching a deal could collapse if Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in November, pointing to the Biden administration’s crackdown on the industry.
“There’s a lot of innovation happening next to crypto, blockchain, and DeFi, so I think it’s important to get this clarity bill passed as quickly as possible and onto the president’s desk this spring,” he concluded.
“No more work to do”
Likewise, Patrick Witt, executive director of the US President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets, discussed progress on the Crypto Market Structure bill on Friday.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Witt said: “We are working hard to resolve the issues raised that led to the postponement of this markup and will hopefully get it back in the book soon. »
He pointed out that lawmakers were able to pass half of the CLARITY Act from the Senate Agriculture Committee, which handles the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) portion of the bill.
The Crypto Council executive director emphasized that once the Senate Banking Committee’s portion of the bill passes, the two pieces of legislation will need to be reconciled before a final vote in the Senate. “So there is still work to be done, but we took another step forward with the adoption of the Ag part a few weeks ago,” he said.
Discussing who must bend to move the bill forward, Witt said both sides would have to compromise. “It’s unfortunate that this has become such a big issue, because ultimately it’s not the stable bill that the GENIUS Act was,” he said.
“What we’ve encouraged both sides to do is find common ground. Let’s use the heel of a scalpel here to address this narrow issue of unused yield… But let’s not bring out a chainsaw; let’s not let that derail the bill. There is so much goodness in this bill, whatever your point of view,” Witt continued.
He listed some of the “excellent measures” proposed in the bill, including the clear demarcation between the SEC and CFTC, regulatory jurisdiction and developer protections, which he considers “critical to future-proofing this industry against a future Gary Gensler or, God forbid, a Treasury Secretary Elizabeth Warren.”
Finally, he indicated that the White House could organize another meeting between the banking and crypto sectors to discuss the payment of stablecoin rewards.
Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $68,258 in the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
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