Treasury Secretary Bessent says Trump's crypto push will 'lock in' dollar supremacy

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's embrace of crypto and stablecoins will cement the U.S. dollar's dominance globally.

"Stablecoins could reinforce dollar supremacy because with stablecoins, stablecoins could end up being one of the largest buyers of U.S. Treasurys," said Bessent in an interview posted to X . "There's a very good chance crypto is actually one of the things that locks in dollar supremacy."

Bessent's comments come a day after the Senate passed landmark stablecoin legislation. The House must now decide whether to take up the Senate's bill or support its own version, which the House Financial Services Committee voted to advance in April .

Either way, President Trump, who is eager to move pro-innovation, crypto legislation along, has said he wants a stablecoin bill on his desk by August.

With major traditional financial institutions poised to enter the stablecoin market, firms like  JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, along with some prominent voices, including Bessent, see the stablecoin market as set to grow into the trillions of dollars. 

Last week , Besent said that the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin market has the potential to surpass $2 trillion within the next three years.

Currently, the total supply of U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins is about $240 billion, according to The Block Data Dashboard . Tether, which is based in El Salvador, is the market leader with its USDT stablecoin.

Biden criticized

Bessent also threw shade at Trump's predecessor, President Joe Biden, in the interview after being asked about the previous Commander-in-Chief's supposed efforts to "constrain" crypto.

"I think constrain is too mild a word — I think make it extinct," Bessent replied. Crypto "is one of the most important phenomenons in the world and the U.S. just ignored it."

Industry leaders widely viewed Biden’s administration as adversarial to the crypto and blockchain sector.

Bessent is considered one of many Trump officials appointed by the current president who are bullish on U.S. prospects for driving crypto innovation around the world.