Chris Giancarlo, a former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said technological innovation in the cryptocurrency industry will not stop even if the Clarity bill pending in Congress fails to pass. He urged the industry not to overestimate the bill and raised concerns about expanded surveillance, saying the bill could draw crypto transactions into Bank Secrecy Act monitoring. He also commented on political factors behind delays and federal regulation of prediction markets.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate to hold an immediate vote on the Clarity Act, a digital asset market structure bill. He said Democrats are delaying for political reasons and warned the United States could lose leadership without clear rules. Bessent defended the bill’s consumer protection and anti-illicit finance provisions and backed a clause codifying Treasury policy on decentralized developers. Negotiations remain stalled over ethics provisions.