At Ripple's Swell conference, the Treasury Secretary called the Senate's failure to pass the CLARITY Act disappointing and said Treasury, the SEC and the CFTC can advance a framework without it. Bitcoin was near $81,400 before the Fed's decision.
The administration's path to crypto market rules no longer runs only through Congress, according to the Treasury Secretary. It now runs through agencies, which can move faster and can be reversed more easily.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, opening Ripple's Swell conference in New York on Tuesday, called the Senate's failure to pass the CLARITY Act, the crypto market-structure bill, disappointing. He said Treasury has "a lot of convening powers" and could work with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which he called "great partners," to advance a regulatory framework through agency action.
He also said regulators could set "guardrails" against the debanking of crypto firms, and described dollar-backed stablecoins as a potential "important source of funding for the Treasury."
What was and was not said
The remarks set out a direction, not a program. Treasury did not announce a rule, a timetable or a joint initiative with either agency, and neither the SEC nor the CFTC had issued a statement in response by early Wednesday.
Why the route matters
A law passed by Congress sets rules that last until Congress changes them. Rules made by agencies can be revised or withdrawn by a future set of regulators. For crypto companies deciding where to build and what to list, that difference affects how much certainty they actually get.
The stablecoin comment explains part of the administration's interest: Bessent framed growth in dollar-backed tokens as a source of demand for government debt.
The market backdrop
Bitcoin was at about $81,400 at 4:46 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, up about 1.1% from Tuesday afternoon after breaking higher in early European hours. U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds took in about $176 million on Tuesday, a second straight day of inflows, while ether funds lost about $60 million. The rise in price and the inflows came together, but one did not necessarily cause the other.
How to read the speech
One reading is that the Treasury Secretary has committed the administration to finishing crypto market rules without waiting for Congress, days before the midterms.
The other is that the remarks restate the agenda the SEC and CFTC were already pursuing, delivered at an industry conference, with no concrete action attached and durability limited by the agency route.
What to watch
Any joint statement or rulemaking from Treasury, the SEC or the CFTC, the Fed's decision at 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Coinbase's and Strategy's results on Thursday, and the monthly bitcoin options expiry on Friday.