The US Treasury Secretary has called for passage of the long-awaited crypto market structure bill this spring to provide certainty to the industry amid recent market volatility.
Crypto Market Construction Bill Implementation Calls
On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged US lawmakers to pass the proposed crypto market structure bill soon, highlighting the importance of getting legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of the spring legislative window.
In a CNBC interview, Bessent confirmed that part of the recent market volatility was “self-inflicted” due to the reaction of some industry participants to the bill. He confirmed that some digital asset companies had blocked it, which “didn’t work for the crypto community as a whole.”
It is worth noting that the long-awaited CLARITY Act has been put on hold for about a month after the Senate Banking Committee published its draft bill. The law was heavily criticized by crypto industry leaders, who criticized many of its policies, including significant restrictions on stablecoin issuers.
The Treasury Secretary believes that passing the bill will “provide great comfort” to the market at a time of great volatility. In addition, he pointed out that there is a bipartisan working group trying to advance the legislation, with Democrats “wanting to work with Republicans on getting a market structure bill.”
However, Bessent noted that the chances of a deal could collapse if Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in November, highlighting the Biden administration’s crackdown on the industry.
“There’s a lot of innovation going on around crypto, blockchain, and DeFi. Therefore, I think it’s important to get this clarification bill done quickly and on the president’s desk this spring,” he concluded.
‘More Work To Be Done’
Similarly, Patrick Witt, executive director of the US President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, discussed progress on the crypto market structure bill on Friday.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Witt said, “We are working hard to address the issues that were raised that led to the reversal of that amount and hopefully that will be back on the books soon.”
He pointed out that the lawmakers were able to pass the Senate Agriculture Committee’s part of the CLARITY Act, which carries part of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) bill.
The executive director of the Crypto Council stated that if the Senate Banking Committee’s portion of the bill is passed, these two pieces of legislation will have to be returned before the final vote on the Senate floor. “So, there’s a lot of work to be done, but we’ve come close to passing the Ag part of this in the last few weeks,” he said.
Discussing who must bend to continue the bill, Witt confirmed that both sides will have to compromise. “It’s sad that this has become such a big deal, because at the end of the day, this is not the stablecoin bill that was the GENIUS Act,” he said.
“What we’ve encouraged both sides to do is find a middle ground. Let’s use the heel of the scalpel here to deal with this little passive yield problem (…). But let’s not pull out the chainsaw on this; let’s not let this derail the bill. There’s a lot of good in this bill, regardless of your opinion,” Witt continued.
He listed some of the “excellent measures” proposed in the bill, including a clear line between the SEC and the CFTC, regulatory powers, and the protection of developers, which he considers “important to ensure this industry in the future from the future Gary Gensler or, God forbid, Treasury Secretary Elizabeth Warren.”
Finally, he shared that the White House may hold another meeting between the bank and the crypto industry to discuss the payment of stablecoin rewards.
Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $68,258 in the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
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