Bessent Presses Senate to Revive Crypto Market Structure Bill

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly called on the Senate to restart negotiations over the CLARITY Act as soon as lawmakers return from their August recess, adding the administration’s weight to a bill whose chances of passing this year have collapsed in recent months. The intervention underscores how much is riding on a piece of legislation meant to give the United States its first comprehensive rulebook for digital assets — and how far that goal has slipped from view.

Bessent’s statement, delivered Wednesday, comes as the Senate prepares to reconvene the following Monday after weeks away from Washington. His appeal is less a routine nudge than a signal that the White House sees the bill’s momentum draining away and wants senators to treat it as urgent business rather than something to revisit later in the session.

A Bill That Cleared One Hurdle, Then Stalled

The CLARITY Act passed the Senate Banking Committee in May, an early milestone that suggested bipartisan appetite for finally defining how digital assets should be regulated at the federal level. Since then, progress has stalled. Most Democrats have withheld support, and the banking industry has lobbied against provisions that would let crypto firms offer yield on stablecoins without meeting the same capital and oversight requirements imposed on traditional banks. That objection sits at the heart of the standoff: banks argue the bill would let competitors offer bank-like products without bank-like accountability, while crypto firms and their allies say the current regulatory vacuum is itself the bigger risk.

The bill’s trajectory is now visible in a prediction market run by Galaxy, which tracks the odds of passage in 2026. Those odds have fallen sharply, from 75% on May 22 to just 10% today. That is not a minor dip — it is a near-total reversal of sentiment among traders and observers who initially expected the bill to clear Congress this year. The Senate is scheduled to hold a pivotal vote on the measure, a moment described as make-or-break for the bill’s prospects, and Bessent’s comments arrive squarely ahead of that reckoning.

Not every signal has been negative. On September 3, the National Sheriffs’ Association shifted its position from outright opposition to neutral, a small but notable change given that law enforcement groups have historically raised concerns about digital assets enabling illicit finance. It suggests at least some skeptical constituencies are willing to be persuaded, even if the core disagreement between the banking sector and crypto industry remains unresolved.

What a Stalled Bill Means for the Industry

The CLARITY Act’s fate matters well beyond Capitol Hill because it would establish the first comprehensive federal framework for how digital assets are classified, custodied and traded in the United States. Without it, companies operating in the space continue to navigate a patchwork of state rules, agency guidance and case-by-case enforcement — an environment that has shaped major corporate decisions all year. Block’s pursuit of a national trust bank charter for crypto custody is one example of a firm trying to secure regulatory legitimacy through existing banking channels rather than waiting for Congress. Institutional entrants like BlackRock, which has already rolled out tokenized cash products designed for stablecoin reserves, are similarly building products inside the current rules rather than around a future framework that may or may not arrive.

The stakes of regulatory ambiguity were also illustrated recently by the collapse of the Tether-backed exchange Orionx following a custody breach, a reminder that the absence of clear federal custody standards carries real consequences for platforms and their users. A durable market structure law would not eliminate operational failures, but it would give regulators and companies a common baseline for custody, disclosure and consumer protection that currently does not exist at the federal level.

What to Watch When the Senate Returns

The most immediate marker will be whether the Senate actually resumes floor negotiations on CLARITY when it reconvenes, and whether Bessent’s appeal translates into any shift among the Democratic senators whose votes are needed to advance the bill. Observers should also watch the Galaxy prediction market for further movement in either direction, since it has proven a sensitive barometer of sentiment throughout the year. The stablecoin-yield dispute between banks and crypto firms remains the central obstacle, and any compromise language addressing bank-level requirements would be the clearest sign of forward motion. Corporate maneuvering will continue regardless of the bill’s fate: consolidation and restructuring moves, such as Consensys splitting MetaMask from its Ethereum infrastructure business, and major capital commitments like Nasdaq’s investment in Kraken’s parent company, suggest the industry is not waiting for Washington to make its next move, even as it keeps one eye on whether Congress finally delivers the rules it has sought for years.

Source: Cointelegraph

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