Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the government may still expand its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings on Aug. 14, backtracking remarks made a few hours earlier.

Bessent had told reporters during a television interview in the morning that the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would remain at its current level.

He said the reserve would consist of approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in Bitcoin that the government already controls, most of which was seized in criminal cases.

Bessent also indicated that there were no active plans to purchase more Bitcoin for the reserve.

However, later in the day, he posted on social media that the Treasury remained “committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways” to add to the reserve, reaffirming the government’s previously known stance toward accumulation.

Bessent did not clarify what a budget-neutral strategy might look like. In fiscal policy, that typically means finding ways to fund purchases without increasing the federal deficit, such as liquidating other assets, reallocating existing appropriations, or creating revenue streams to offset the cost.

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was established in March through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. It is part of a broader White House effort to integrate digital assets into U.S. financial strategy.

Supporters see it as a way to diversify national reserves, provide a hedge against inflation, and strengthen the country’s position in global currency competition. The program currently relies on Bitcoin confiscated by law enforcement as its base supply.

The change in tone came during a volatile trading session. Bitcoin reached a new record high above $124,000 overnight before falling back to about $117,000 later in the day.

The drop followed stronger-than-expected wholesale inflation data, which reduced market expectations that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in September.

Bessent’s comments also come amid leadership changes in the administration’s digital asset policy team. Earlier this month, Bo Hines, who led the White House Council of Advisors on Digital Assets and helped design the reserve framework, left his position.

His exit has prompted speculation about potential adjustments to the program’s scope and timing.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling for a review of the central bank’s operations as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faces mounting pressure to resign.

In a new interview with Bloomberg Television, Bessent says that the Federal Reserve is in need of deeper scrutiny as its budget and operations have expanded over the years.

Bessent’s comments come as President Donald Trump has said he hopes Powell quits and has also considered attempting to remove him, all while slamming the Fed chair for not cutting interest rates.

“The President has said he is not going to fire Chair Powell. I was somewhat surprised that [economist] Mohamed El-Erian came out and said that [Powell should resign]. And what I’ve come out and said is that I believe that it would do Chair Powell a favor, and he would be doing the institution a favor, if he did an internal review, separate monetary policy from everything else.

And this is something that [economist and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury] Larry Summers and I agree on, is this mission creep from the Fed is endangering their independence of monetary policy, all these other things that they’re engaging in could threaten monetary policy.

It is a big, sprawling institution. The central budget for the board is up 4x since 2004, and every institution needs to examine themselves.”

Bessent also says he’d support Powell overseeing the agency’s review, despite the criticism he’s facing.

“It could be a committee. It could be a group. They could invite outside experts in. The Bank of England after the 2022 rate hike shock went back and did a very good examination of what went wrong with monetary policy that brought in outside experts. I think an internal review would be a good start. And if the internal review didn’t look like it was serious, then maybe their could be an external review.”

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Major cryptocurrencies rose Sunday morning as the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at upcoming trade deals before the July 9 Liberation Day tariff deadline.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, gained over 1%, briefly topping $109,000. Payments-focused XRP and Solana’s SOL token gained over 2% each, with meme token dogecoin

rising 3%, according to data source CoinDesk. Ethereum’s ether, the second-largest token, rose 1.5% to $2,550.

In an interview with CNN, Bessent stated that the U.S. is close to finalizing several trade deals ahead of the July 9 deadline, when the temporary pause in higher tariffs initially announced on April 2 is set to expire.

“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly,” Bessent said, per Reuters.

Bessent explained that July 9 remains the deadline for negotiations, failing which higher tariffs, announced in early April, will take effect from Aug. 1.

“We are saying this is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice,” Bessent told CNN, adding that some countries were ‘foot-dragging’ on getting to deals.

Since taking office early this year, President Donald Trump has been focused on making the U.S. wealthy again by imposing tariffs on goods imported from other countries, a coercive tactic aimed at rebalancing trade relations and reducing the U.S. trade deficit.

Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, starting with a 10% base tax on all trading partners and additional amounts on many countries, with some ranging as high as 50%. The so-called Liberation Day announcement triggered a sell-off in financial markets, with U.S. stocks taking a significant hit alongside a sharp decline in bitcoin, which fell to $75,000.

The panic likely prompted the Trump administration to announce a 90-day pause a week later.

Since then, the so-called U.S. exceptionalism has resurfaced in financial markets, lifting major U.S. equity indices to record highs. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have outperformed their global peers, with BTC rallying to trade above $100,000.

The secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department says the Trump administration is committed to making America a global crypto hub. 

In a post on the social media platform X, Scott Bessent says the White House is going all out on digital assets because the “anti-innovation agenda and regulation-by-enforcement approach” of the previous administration nearly destroyed the industry. 

“We are going big on digital assets. The Trump administration has made digital assets a priority. The past administration starved and almost made extinct a lot of these companies and pushed them offshore.”

He says the government is particularly focused on stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to commodities and or fiat currencies such as the US dollar. 

“What we want to do is apply the highest US regulatory and AML (anti-money laundering) standard to digital assets, especially stablecoins.”

Bessent also says stablecoins can ultimately drive strong demand for US debt. 

“I’ve seen estimates that just over the short term, stablecoins could create $2 trillion of demand for US Treasuries and Treasury bills. Put that in context, the number is probably about $300 billion right now…

Digital asset companies deserve regulatory clarity – and that’s exactly what we are working toward. Passing the stablecoin bill is just the start.”

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A controversial 48-49 Senate vote on Thursday to reject the GENIUS Act has sparked an immediate backlash from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who condemned the decision as a “historic misstep” with global consequences.

In a strongly worded post on X (formerly Twitter) on May 9, Scott Bessent condemned the Senate’s failure to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, arguing it squandered a rare chance to lead the global stablecoin market.

“The world needs American leadership,” Bessent wrote. “The Senate missed an opportunity to provide that leadership today by failing to advance the GENIUS Act.”

Did the Senate Just Kill U.S. Crypto Dominance?

Scott Bessent labeled the bill a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to assert dollar dominance through innovation.

He criticized the Senate for allowing state-by-state regulatory fragmentation to persist and warned that digital asset development could shift abroad without a unified federal framework.

The GENIUS Act, introduced in February by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and co-sponsored by prominent Republicans, including Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and digital assets advocate Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), sought to provide a comprehensive federal framework for the issuance and regulation of stablecoins in the United States.

Despite early bipartisan momentum, the bill failed a procedural vote on May 8 after Senate Democrats abruptly pulled support over national security concerns, AML provisions, and last-minute resistance from key lawmakers.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), who opposed the bill, said its text was “not yet finished,” while others hinted at deeper political friction.

The Unspoken Political Tensions Fueling the GENIUS Act’s Demise

Some Democrats privately expressed discomfort with President Trump’s recent pro-crypto involvements, which they feared had tainted the legislative process with political overtones.

The bill’s failure has cast a shadow over the future of stablecoin regulation and broader crypto legislation, particularly ahead of the 2026 midterms when all House seats and one-third of the Senate will be up for grabs.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a key co-sponsor, voiced her disappointment on X, stating that failing to pass the GENIUS Act was a step backward in securing America’s digital future.

John Deaton, a well-known pro-XRP lawyer, called on lawmakers to rise above partisan divisions. “Senators need to place the country first, not politics. This bill had bipartisan support just a week ago. What happened?”

Decentralization vs. Control: The Ideological Clash Central to Stablecoin Debates

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, while not directly commenting on the GENIUS Act, had previously warned against “centralized stablecoins becoming a tool for geographical control.” The implication is that a U.S.-denominated stablecoin framework could undermine crypto’s decentralized ethos.

Lawmakers argue that stablecoins like Tether’s USDT require oversight to prevent criminal exploitation.

In addition, according to a previous report, stablecoins make up the bulk of illicit transaction volume in 2024.

The collapse of TerraUSD further fueled debate. The crash erased $40 billion in value, raising concerns about consumer risks in decentralized systems. Proponents of regulation cite TerraUSD as evidence that even decentralized models can fail, leaving users vulnerable.

However, critics note a contradiction. Many “decentralized” stablecoins still depend on centralized elements, such as development teams or governance structures. The result is a paradox, as blockchain systems designed to eliminate trust still rely on it, just in different hands.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The post Scott Bessent Slams 48-49 Senate Snub – Will GENIUS Act Failure Cost U.S. Crypto Crown? appeared first on Cryptonews.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says digital assets may create a $2 trillion demand for US Treasuries in the coming years.

In an appearance before a Congressional House Committee Tuesday morning focused on the international financial system, Bessent says the US should take a global leadership role on digital assets.

“We believe that the United States should be the premier destination for digital assets, and, as members of this committee and the Senate are attempting to do, create good market structure around that so that US best practices are used around the world.”

He also says that the crypto market may give US Treasuries a massive demand boost.

“Digital assets are an important source of innovation that can drive usage of the US dollar around the world, as with stablecoin legislation. There is speculation that there may be up to $2 trillion of demand over the next few years for US government securities from digital assets.”

Last month, veteran macro investor Luke Gromen explained that Bitcoin (BTC) can influence demand for US Treasuries. According to Gromen, a Bitcoin bull market typically increases demand for dollar-pegged crypto assets known as stablecoins.

Stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle predominantly rely on Treasury bills to back their coins on a 1:1 basis. As of December 2024, Tether has invested over $94.47 billion in T-bills to back USDT. Circle owns $22.047 billion worth of T-bills as of February of this year to back its stablecoin, USDC.

Meanwhile, two stablecoin bills making their way through Congress, the STABLE Act of 2025 and the GENIUS Act of 2025, require issuers to invest in T-bills and other real-world assets to back their coins.

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