In brief
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said stablecoins could strengthen dollar dominance and urged swift passage of federal crypto legislation.
- His comments came as Trump pushed Congress to fast-track the GENIUS Act after Senate approval, reversing last month’s failed procedural vote.
- Industry leaders welcomed the move but warned that political infighting and perceived conflicts could undermine trust in the bill.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday, “Stablecoins can reinforce dollar supremacy,” pushing back against critics who view crypto as a threat to America’s currency dominance, as President Trump urged Congress to fast-track landmark legislation.
“Crypto is not a threat to the dollar,” Bessent tweeted on Wednesday, calling digital assets “one of the most important phenomena in the world right now” that have been “ignored by national governments for far too long.”
The comments came as Trump pressed House lawmakers to quickly pass the GENIUS Act after the Senate approved the stablecoin framework on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s Senate passage marked a reversal from last month, when the GENIUS Act failed a procedural vote after pro-crypto Democrats withdrew support over concerns about national security provisions and conflicts of interest from the Trump family.
Bessent condemned that earlier defeat, warning that “the world is watching while American lawmakers twiddle their thumbs” and urging Congress to “either step up and lead or watch digital asset innovation move offshore.”
The legislation would establish federal rules for issuing and trading stablecoins—digital tokens typically pegged to the U.S. dollar.
“Stablecoins could end up being one of the largest buyers of U.S. treasuries or T-bills,” the Treasury Secretary said in a New York Post interview, explaining how someone using a dollar-backed stablecoin in Nigeria could transact without actually holding physical dollars.
“I think there’s a very good chance that crypto is actually one of the things that locks in dollar supremacy,” Bessent said, noting the Biden administration tried to “make it extinct” rather than embrace innovation.
Industry leaders welcomed the Senate passage, while acknowledging ongoing political tensions.
Ira Auerbach, Head of Tandem at Offchain Labs, told Decrypt that “the continued political divide on crypto is creating a market operating under a ‘best guesses’ framework, and that’s becoming untenable for an industry growing at breakneck speed.”
Auerbach pointed out that stablecoins “require a different legislative approach than digital assets like memecoins or trading tokens,” saying that these are “separate issues” where speculative concerns “shouldn’t be allowed to impede” payment infrastructure development.
However, concerns persist about conflicts of interest.
While speaking to Decrypt, Alexander Urbelis, General Counsel at ENS Labs, warned that the GENIUS Act’s “perceived entanglement to the Trump family’s private interests” could “erode trust and credibility in the legislative process” and fuel “political theatrics” over crypto’s supposed risks.
Urbelis cautioned that in an era of “deep fakes amplified by social media platforms that have abandoned fact checking,” conspiracy theories about dollar mismanagement could “undermine public trust” and have “global consequences.”
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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