Clarity Act Passage Would 'Comfort' Markets Amid Bitcoin Volatility: Treasury Secretary Bessent

In brief

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the passing of the Clarity Act would bring a calm to the markets amid Bitcoin’s recent volatility.
• Bessent called the current market reaction “self-induced” as some crypto firms (like Coinbase) stand against the current text of the bill.
• The bill has around a 62% chance of getting signed into law in 2026, according to prediction markets.

The crypto market has been awash in volatility as Bitcoin and Ethereum have tumbled far from their all-time highs set last year. But if the United States government passes the Clarity Act, also known as the crypto market structure bill, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent believes that it would provide calm to markets. “Some clarity on the Clarity bill would give great comfort to the market,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Friday. “I think it’s important to get this Clarity bill done as soon as possible and on the president’s desk this spring.” 

The Treasury Secretary called some of crypto’s recent pain, which has seen Bitcoin fall more than 29% in the last month, “self-induced.”  “There is a group of Democrats who want to work with Republicans on getting a market structure bill,” he added. “But there are a group of crypto firms who have been blocking it… that doesn’t seem to have been good for the overall crypto community.”  Bessent’s Friday remarks are mild compared to his recent criticisms of the crypto companies—most notably Coinbase—which have signaled that they are not interested in supporting the bill in its current form. Last week, he called such parties “nihilists,” and said that “any market participants that don’t want it [the Clarity Act] should move to El Salvador.” Last weekend, he defined them as “recalcitrant actors” during a TV appearance.

American crypto exchange Coinbase pulled its support over a section of the bill that would limit companies from providing yield on stablecoins to consumers. At the time, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said, “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.” It’s not just Coinbase that could derail the bill’s completion, though. Bessent also noted that if Democrats were to earn the majority in the House of Representatives during the midterm elections later this year, the “prospects of getting a deal done will just fall apart.”  “Look at what the Democrats did to crypto under the Biden administration. It was almost an extinction event,” he said.  Predictors on Polymarket give the bill around a 62% chance of being signed into law by the end of 2026.