WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is urging Congress to pass comprehensive legislation governing digital assets, arguing that clearer rules are essential to keeping financial innovation—and its economic benefits—within the United States.
In an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, Bessent said the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based finance has made the sector too significant to remain under a fragmented regulatory system. He noted that global digital asset market capitalization has fluctuated between $2 trillion and $3 trillion over the past year and that nearly one in six Americans owns some form of digital asset.
Bessent pointed to the recently enacted GENIUS Act, signed by Donald Trump, as a key step in establishing a regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins and reinforcing the U.S. dollar’s role in emerging blockchain-based financial systems.
‘Major Obstacle’
However, he said broader regulatory uncertainty remains a major obstacle, citing overlapping and sometimes conflicting oversight claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That lack of clarity has driven crypto firms and developers to jurisdictions such as Abu Dhabi and Singapore, where rules are more clearly defined, he wrote.
To address those challenges, Bessent called on lawmakers to pass the proposed Clarity Act, which he said would establish clear regulatory boundaries, define when digital assets qualify as securities and create registration pathways for trading platforms and intermediaries. The legislation would also include investor protections, disclosure requirements and measures aimed at combating illicit finance.
Bessent argued that pairing the Clarity Act with the GENIUS Act would provide a comprehensive framework for digital asset markets, supporting the development of technologies such as tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges while encouraging companies to operate domestically.
Issue of National Security
He also framed the issue as one of national security, writing that bringing digital asset activity under a well-defined regulatory structure would improve oversight, strengthen anti-money-laundering compliance and reduce reliance on offshore markets.
“The U.S. didn’t become the world’s financial center by hesitating in moments of technological change,” Bessent wrote, adding that congressional action would help ensure future financial innovation is “built on American rails, backed by American institutions, and denominated in American dollars.”
