[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong] U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Senate Banking Committee to proceed with review of the crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act and hand it to President Donald Trump.

On April 9, the blockchain outlet BeInCrypto reported that Bessent, in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, stressed the need to pass the CLARITY Act. The article is Bessent's most direct public pressure yet on the legislation.

The CLARITY Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2025 with a bipartisan vote of 294 to 134, but it has stalled in the Senate amid disagreements over a stablecoin revenue provision and competing drafts by committees.

Bessent described the bill as an extension of the GENIUS Act, a dollar-pegged stablecoin regulation law that Trump signed in July 2025. He argued that without the CLARITY Act, a stablecoin-only framework would make it difficult to build a market structure to support tokenised assets and decentralised exchanges.

In the article, he noted that the global digital asset market ranges between $2 trillion and $3 trillion, and that close to 1 in 6 Americans hold digital assets in some form. He added that it was time for the Senate Banking Committee to begin reviewing the bill.

The timetable is also tight. If the balance of power in Congress changes due to the 2026 midterm elections, crypto legislation could be delayed again beyond this year. Senator Cynthia Lummis said last month that a Senate Banking Committee hearing could be held in late April.

Some issues have been adjusted. Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Angela Alsobrooks were reported to have reached a principle agreement in March on the stablecoin revenue provision. Provisions related to decentralised finance protections and illicit finance remain unresolved.

Bessent also cited the cost of a regulatory vacuum. He warned that regulatory uncertainty has pushed crypto development to jurisdictions with clearer rules, specifically mentioning Abu Dhabi and Singapore. He argued that the CLARITY Act would create a registration pathway for trading platforms, set standards for which digital assets qualify as securities, and strengthen anti-money laundering oversight.

Whether the Senate Banking Committee can act before the midterm election season intensifies is expected to be a turning point for the bill. If the Senate fails to begin the review process this year, the United States' crypto regulatory system could remain limited to stablecoin regulation, while core market-structure legislation is pushed back again.