Bessent Backs SEC and CFTC Crypto Rules as Congress Stalls
Treasury Secretary Bessent says agency action can advance crypto regulation after the Clarity Act failed, but warns rules written by regulators can be undone.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Ripple's Swell conference Tuesday that Washington can still build a crypto regulatory framework without congressional action, pledging to use Treasury's convening power to push the SEC and CFTC toward workable rules — even after the Senate's Clarity Act collapsed six weeks ago on a 49-50 procedural vote, eleven votes short of the 60 needed to advance.
Bessent called the SEC and CFTC "great partners" in the effort and broadened the regulatory agenda to include debanking — the practice of financial institutions cutting crypto businesses off from services, sometimes allegedly under regulatory pressure. He argued the Clarity Act could have protected against that practice, but that agency-level best practices can still reduce the risk. He also framed stablecoins as a tool to boost demand for US dollars and Treasuries, positioning them as strategically important to government funding.
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The agency route was already in motion before Bessent spoke. The SEC proposed its Regulation Crypto Assets framework on August 18, launched an innovation exemption for tokenized securities venues on September 17, and the CFTC sent its own crypto market rules to the White House for review. Bessent's remarks effectively put Treasury's institutional weight behind that path rather than announcing a fundamentally new direction.
The durability problem looms large, however. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has himself acknowledged that legislation is ultimately needed to lock in rules that a future regulator cannot reverse. JPMorgan noted last week that agency actions partly offset the Clarity Act setback but warned that political and legal risks will persist until Congress passes a market structure law — since any incoming administration could roll back what regulators write today.
JPMorgan considers a revived Clarity Act unlikely before year-end but sees a possible return in 2027, a timeline that may shift depending on the composition of the next Congress. The nearest concrete milestones are the CFTC rules clearing White House review and the SEC finalizing Regulation Crypto Assets. For market participants, the practical read is that agency progress lowers near-term uncertainty for exchanges and token issuers, but a regulatory risk premium is likely to remain embedded in prices until Congress acts. Continue reading at Forexlive.
