POPA ReconSpeaking at Ripple Swell in New York on 27 October 2026 in a dialogue with Brad Garlinghouse, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the CLARITY Act failure a disappointment, according to CoinDesk.
He described a workaround: Treasury has a lot of convening powers, the SEC and CFTC are excellent partners, and agency action could fill the gap left by CLARITY and build a framework that becomes a model for other countries. That is the remark picked up as breaking by @cryptorover and @BitcoinArchive.
On debanking, he said CLARITY would have helped prevent it, but regulatory best practices and guardrails could protect crypto without a law.
He put digital assets alongside AI and chips in the tech race with China, saying the U.S. will win the digital asset stack and that strengthens the dollar, and described the GENIUS Act as dollar and Treasury demand: over 90% of stablecoins backed by dollars, reserves in government paper, becoming an important funding source for Treasury.
No specific documents, timelines or orders were named, and CoinDesk noted agency rules lack the permanence of a law.