Scott Bessent blames 'recalcitrant actors' for crypto bill delay
When Coinbase Global (COIN) withdrew its support for the US Senate Banking Committee's draft of the CLARITY Act crypto bill, CEO Brian Armstrong said in a post on X that the company would "rather have no bill than a bad bill."
Although the legislation has a signifiant amount of bipartisan support in Congress and also seems to have a lot of backing from key players in the banking and crypto industries, the fact that Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott decided to delay the highly anticipated vote showed how much influence Coinbase wields over the process.
And in a new interview with Fox News on Tuesday, US Secretary Scott Bessent appears to be casting blame on the crypto giant for delaying passage of the legislation, while also alluding to the extreme volatility the crypto markets have undergone over the past year as a reason why it's become more important to get the bill done.
BESSENT: COINBASE IS BLOCKING THE CRYPTO BILL
undefined Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) February 10, 2026
Bessent says “recalcitrant actors” are blocking the crypto bill because they’d rather have no legislation than one they dislike.
That mirrors Coinbase’s stance, with Brian Armstrong saying he'd rather have undefinedno bill than a bad… pic.twitter.com/otbhjtBqgr
"I think what we're seeing in the crypto market over the past few months means more than ever that the US needs market structure, we need clarity and we need to get this across the line this spring," Bessent said.
"We've got a few recalcitrant actors who said, 'well, it's better to have no legislation than the legislation we don't want,' and I think both the banks and the other crypto firms are united against them."
Bessent added that he was optimistic that the bill would get passed soon, noting the bipartisan support for it - something that's become increasingly rare in Congress.
"Under President Trump's leadership, the US is becoming the crypto capital of the world with our best practices, our best regulation," Bessent said. "And for crypto to remain a viable digital asset and move forward, we need to get this CLARITY Act done."
Coinbase has yet to respond to Bessent's comments.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming who has been one of the most vocal supporters of crypto in Congress, told Fox News last week that the Senate Banking Committee was delaying the vote on the crypto legislation until the spring.
Lummis indicated that the delay on the vote was not only because of "what Coinbase had said about it, but because there were other concerns."
However, Lummis mentioned that those concerns centered around the stablecoin rewards that the banking industry want to see eliminated - and which is the biggest point of contention that Coinbase had with the latest draft of the bill.
Armstrong said in his post on X that the newest version of the legislation contained "amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition."
White House reportedly 'furious' with Coinbase
Bessent's latest comments could be hinting at greater frustration that the Trump administration is feeling with Coinbase.
Crypto podcaster Eleanor Terrett noted last month that after Coinbase pulled its support for the legislation, the White House was "furious" with the company's "unilateral action" and that the administration was apparently not notified that the company was backing out.
"The White House is considering pulling its support for the crypto market structure bill entirely if @coinbase does not come back to the table with a yield agreement that satisfies the banks and gets everyone to a deal, a source close to the Trump administration tells me," Terrett said.
However, Armstrong responded to her post and said that her reporting was "not accurate."
“The White House has been super constructive here,” he said. “They did ask us to see if we can go figure out a deal with the banks, which we're currently working on.”
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Monday at a conference in California that some of “the euphoria that came into the crypto world with the current administration, some of that’s kind of fading.”
And he sounded pessimistic about the state of the CLARITY Act.
“Right now, CLARITY seems to be sort of stalled in the Congress,” Waller said. “There's a lot of opposition to what they want to do on things, and they can't seem to break through and finish and I think that's part of the reason there are some disruptions in this crypto world.”