US Treasury Secretary Urges Congress To Pass Crypto Market Structure Bill This Spring

The US Secretary of the Treasury has called for the passage of the long-awaited crypto market structure bill this spring to provide reassurance to the industry amid recent market volatility.

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the US lawmakers to pass the stalled crypto market structure bill soon, highlighting the importance of getting the legislation on President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of the spring legislative window.

However, Bessent noted that the chances of getting a deal done could fall apart 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 that goes on adjacent to crypto, the blockchain, and DeFi. So, I think it’s important to get this clarity bill done as soon as possible and on the president’s desk this spring,” he concluded.

Speaking with Yahoo Finance, Witt stated, “We are working hard to address the issues that were raised that led to the postponement of that markup and hopefully get that back on the book soon.”

He highlighted that lawmakers were able to pass the Senate Agriculture Committee’s half of the CLARITY Act, which handles the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s portion of the bill.

The Crypto Council’s executive director outlined that once the Senate Banking Committee’s portion of the bill is passed, the two pieces of legislation will need to be reconciled before a final vote on the Senate floor. “So, more work to be done, but we are a step closer with the passage of the Ag portion of this a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

“What we’ve encouraged both sides to do is find a middle ground. Let’s use a scalpel heel here to address this narrow issue of idle yield (…). But let’s not take a chainsaw out of this; let’s not let this derail the bill. There is so much goodness in this bill, no matter what your perspective is,” Witt continued.

Lastly, he shared that the White House might host another meeting between the banking and crypto industry to discuss the payment of stablecoin rewards.