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An update from Tomasz | Ethereum Foundation Blog

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An update from Tomasz | Ethereum Foundation Blog

tl;dr

I am stepping down from my co-ED role at the EF at the end of February 2026. Bastian Aue is taking over the co-ED role alongside Hsiao-Wei. The future is bright for builders, for Ethereum, for the EF, and for me.

Future of Ethereum

As competing ideas emerge and fail and the markets jump up and down, we have never been given too much certainty. The conviction about Ethereum that comes from a deep understanding of its technology, its governance, its meaning for the future, and the values we share will always make us converge intermittently, even when our curiosities drive our explorations very far from the canonical paths.

For a long time, I have been exploring what the future of Ethereum looks like. We are witnessing the transition of financial infrastructure to Ethereum, and the emergence of automated, agentic interactions. Very soon, we will witness robots, new forms of governance, and AI healthcare and education. I believe that Ethereum will remain a natural infrastructure layer for coordination of all these technologies interacting.

Open-source LLM models are not doing badly and will hopefully do better and better. Open-source agentic workers are becoming the most exciting toys for builders and creators since early Ethereum. Important privacy and security questions emerge around the new paradigms; the world is changing fast, and among the changes, Ethereum is becoming the underlying infrastructure for verification and financial transactions. The cypherpunk ethos of Ethereum remains intact, with the best of the privacy builders and security experts ensuring that the network helps people preserve privacy and access to essential infrastructure.

Ethereum emerged as the clear institutional preference in 2025. Dashboards show Ethereum’s growing market share in stablecoins and RWA activity. Ethereum is seen as the lowest-risk chain. Credible neutrality, decentralization, and no downtime since genesis all present institutions with an infrastructure with uniquely low counterparty, technology, and jurisdiction risk. I am looking forward to Ethereum showing up at the financial centers of the world, with the major institutional Ethereum conference coming to New York this year.

With the advancement of AI and progressing integration into the world financial systems, there has rarely been a more exciting time to build on Ethereum.

Future of the EF

It has been important for me, over the last year, to present the role of the EF co-ED as impactful and desirable, a position where one can make a meaningful difference by empowering people of extraordinary talent and dedication, both at the EF and more broadly in the Ethereum ecosystem.

We have managed to deliver change at the EF fast; we have great talent that learns quickly and has a great direction for 2026. The co-ED position was extremely rewarding, strategically challenging, and brought me a lot of joy and inspiration. The support that I received from the community was tremendous. I am happy with the current state of things; the roadmap is clearer; the goals are set; the leaders at the EF grew more confident about making decisions by themselves and owning more. The most important goals: accelerating decision-making, speaking to younger generations, bringing new excitement to the builders’ community, communicating more openly on social media and podcasts, becoming more open to institutions, supporting founders, setting up treasury policies, strengthening local hubs and communities, introducing compensation policy, bringing more clarity to the L1–L2 relationship, creating more internal and external transparency around budgets and structure have either been completed or are consistently improving. People who delivered these changes continue working on Ethereum. More and more people see ETH clearly as a store of value. Some of the changes can only happen by surprise. While my ability to execute independently at the EF diminishes over time, my time at the organization in 2026 would feel more and more like just staying around to pass the baton. The EF is in a healthy state of an organization that can balance long-term goals and the need for change. The EF is unique, far from boring, very resilient, and led by highly intelligent people.

The beginning of 2026 makes me very excited about the role the EF can play in the future of Ethereum. Very soon, we plan to release a proposal for a merged LEAN Ethereum and core development roadmap, highlighting the long-term path forward for the Ethereum protocol that the EF Protocol team believes in. It should provide clear guidance and a setup for coordination in 2026 and beyond. After delivering two network upgrades in 2025 and with the support of coordination teams from the EF, core devs are well positioned to keep shipping essential improvements on time.

We have a very clear quantum strategy, with the top quantum security researchers finalizing the specs and the best engineers working on implementations. Post-quantum security has a clear place in the EF Protocol roadmap.

We have a dedicated decentralized AI team delivering standards, experiments, and solutions for the agentic economy ([1], [2]).

We have the ecosystem development EcoDev team focusing on the success of founders, institutions, and governments building on Ethereum. We have a dedicated Global Policy Support team. We are automating more and more of our efforts by using AI for coordination. Communication about the roadmaps, use cases, and applications is much clearer, with fantastic work from the teams at ethereum.org and forkcast.org.

One of the major discussion points and challenges for the last year was around the L1–L2 relationship. Vitalik’s recent posts seek to provide more clarity about the situation that has been observed for a long time. L2s extend or build on top of Ethereum with various security and decentralization trade-offs. L2s choose to build their value proposition by choosing between risks and improved UX across parameters such as scaling, decentralization, historical state availability, privacy, etc. We have created the Platform team at the EF and brought over 20 Ethereum L2s to discuss the future of scaling, differentiation, and interoperability at the Network School. Teams building based rollups, native rollups, and synchronous composability are starting this year with clearer visions and a more focused approach. Recently, major Ethereum rollups have started more and more consistently overtaking all AltL1s in the stablecoin and TPS metrics, a trend that I am convinced will continue.

While we became more open to applications and institutional space, we remained centered around cypherpunk values with groups like Vitalik’s Silviculture Society advising senior leaders on emerging risks and warning against false steps. With a series of tweets at the beginning of 2026, Vitalik set a tone for respecting the importance of what is fundamental to the EF’s existence. The work of PSE and Kohaku focuses nowadays on applied privacy. The Protocol team dedicates more effort than ever to security and censorship resistance with FOCIL and the Trillion Dollar Security program.

I am extremely excited about Devcon Mumbai bringing the world’s blockchain thought leaders and founders to work together on Ethereum. The Indian community has deserved this event for years, and I am very proud that the team brings Devcon to India in 2026.

In 2026, the EF is also much better at speaking to the new generation of builders. The work of the new voices at the EF, and all the talented people working with founders and media behind the scenes shows the new energy at the EF and it will keep the community excited in 2026, especially with the movement around agentic AI and Ethereum becoming its go-to trust infrastructure.

The Ethereum Everywhere efforts already support the hubs in San Francisco, Lagos, London, Berlin, and Hong Kong. The Academic Secretariat team plans many new university events this year; the pop-up cities idea maintains momentum and the scene gets better and better organized; new builders and long-term thought leaders meet and build around the world.

In the coming weeks, the DeFi coordination team at the EF will publish a blog post with their plans and roadmap. I am extremely excited about the talent that we brought to the EF to help with the DeFi coordination. There could be no better people to help us support the DeFi ecosystem.

Hsiao-Wei stays and continues the path. Bastian Aue takes on an expanded leadership role alongside Hsiao-Wei. Whatever direction they take, they will have the support of the best talent in crypto. The entire EcoDev transformation on the builders, founders, and institutional side was brought to the EF by James Smith, who continues on his mission. Policy support and long-term work continue under the great leadership of Bastian Aue and Tju Liang. Josh Stark has an exceptional talent for executing operational changes fast and also led all the major communication changes on social media that happened in 2025. Engineers and the researchers in the Protocol cluster work more closely together and confidently set roadmaps for the future and tackle the toughest technological challenges. The EF is the place where things move fast, and changes can happen within days or weeks.

My future

My DMs stay open for all of you who need support in connecting with people at the EF or discussing the vision and strategy of Ethereum. I will remain available for the EF leadership, should they ever feel they need advice (although I am sure that more often than not I have received valuable advice from them in the past). I plan to always put pressure on the Ethereum ecosystem to move at pace.

I may continue traveling and working with local communities and helping businesses build on Ethereum. I plan to act more as a core dev, a hands-on product builder and among other things, work on the agentic core development and agentic governance. I feel much the same as I felt when I started Nethermind in 2017. I felt very strongly at the time that a big change was happening. I knew that Ethereum was going to replace the financial systems and I knew that I had an important experience in the financial industry to make it more of an evolution rather than a revolution. I know now that agentic systems and AI-assisted discovery are reshaping the world. I am well aware of the impermanence or even uselessness of some of the agentic ideas, but it is the playful experimentation that defined much of the early Ethereum innovation.

I plan to continue working directly with founders in frontier tech and Ethereum. I want to see and support the realization of the vision that I have talked about over the last years. It is one of the most exciting times to be a builder on Ethereum.

Thank You

It is impossible to list everyone who helped me, the EF, and Ethereum in 2025. During my time at the EF, I visited over 20 countries for work and spent much time with local communities. I met thousands of people: builders, financiers, educators, policymakers, creators, researchers, academics. I loved all the words of support, tough questions, and critique coming from you.

I would love to wholeheartedly thank the EF board for taking the bold step of bringing me on to join Hsiao-Wei as a co-ED. I would like to thank Hsiao-Wei and the management team for moving fast together. Massive thanks to Bastian Aue, Josh Stark, and Tju Liang for bringing so much emotional intelligence and facilitating thoughtful discussions when facing the most difficult matters. Thank you, Joe Schweitzer, for reviewing countless podcasts and helping us all reach a broad audience when talking about the future of Ethereum.

Huge thanks to hundreds of Ethereum leaders reaching out to me in March and April 2025, telling me about every single thing that needed attention and sharing their views on what the EF strategy should be. Thank you so much; I would never have found the right paths without you.

Thank you to every single person at the EF for executing on your beliefs and talents.

—

Tomasz

botim money Partners with TerraPay to Expand Global Remittance Reach, Focusing on Africa

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botim money Partners with TerraPay to Expand Global Remittance Reach, Focusing on Africa

botim money, the financial services arm of the MENA region’s Ultra app botim, has partnered with global money movement network TerraPay to expand its cross-border remittance capabilities.

The collaboration aims to enhance the speed and reliability of international transfers, with a specific focus on key African markets including Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt.

Real-time validation for reliability

The partnership integrates TerraPay’s global infrastructure directly into the botim money ecosystem. A core feature of this integration is real-time wallet validation, which verifies recipient details before a transfer is initiated. This capability is designed to significantly improve delivery success rates—a critical factor for the millions of expatriates in the UAE who rely on these services to support families back home.

Users of botim money will now be able to send funds via direct bank transfers and instant mobile wallet payouts, leveraging TerraPay’s network which connects to over 3.7 billion mobile wallets and 7.5 billion bank accounts globally.

Hesham Sherif, head of business, remittance at botim, commented: “For customers, remittances are about reliability. If a transfer fails or is delayed, it has real consequences for families waiting on the other side. That’s why certainty matters as much as speed… Our partnership with TerraPay strengthens our remittance infrastructure across the world, especially in key African corridors through real-time validation and broader payout coverage.”

Focus on African corridors

The strategic focus on Africa comes at a time of significant growth for remittance flows into the continent. In 2024, remittance inflows to Africa reached an estimated $96.4billion, accounting for approximately 5.2 per cent of the region’s GDP.

By prioritising markets where mobile wallets are a dominant financial tool, such as Kenya and Ghana, botim money aims to support financial inclusion in areas with limited access to traditional banking.

Bassem Awada, senior vice president at TerraPay, added: “Remittances are a critical financial lifeline for millions of families across the world, and reliability is non-negotiable. Our partnership with botim money brings together TerraPay’s global payments infrastructure and real-time wallet validation with botim’s strong presence in the UAE, enabling faster, more secure cross-border transfers into the globe.”

Formerly known as PayBy, botim money operates under the ecosystem of Astra Tech and is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. It holds both Stored Value Facility (SVF) and Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) licenses, offering a suite of services including digital wallets, lending, and international transfers to millions of users across the region.

Treasury Urges Passage Of Crypto Market Bill This Spring

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Treasury Urges Passage Of Crypto Market Bill This Spring

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The US Secretary of the Treasury has called for the passage of the long-awaited crypto market structure bill this spring to provide reassurance to the industry amid recent market volatility.

Bessent Calls For Crypto Market Structure Bill

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the US lawmakers to pass the stalled crypto market structure bill soon, highlighting the importance of getting the legislation on President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of the spring legislative window.

In a CNBC interview, Bessent affirmed that part of the recent market volatility was “self-induced” due to the reaction of some industry participants to the bill. He affirmed that some digital assets firms have been blocking it, which hasn’t been “good for the overall crypto community.”

Notably, the long-awaited CLARITY Act has been stalled for nearly a month after the Senate Banking Committee published its bill draft. The legislation was heavily criticized by crypto industry leaders, who slammed multiple of its policies, including key restrictions for stablecoin issuers.

The Treasury Secretary considers that passing the bill would “give great comfort” to the market at a time of significant volatility. Moreover, he pointed out that there’s a bipartisan working group trying to advance the legislation, with democrats “that want to work with republicans on getting a market structure bill.”

However, Bessent noted that the chances of getting a deal done could fall apart if Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in November, highlighting the Biden administration’s crackdown on the industry.

“There’s a lot of innovation that goes on adjacent to crypto, the blockchain, and DeFi. So, I think it’s important to get this clarity bill done as soon as possible and on the president’s desk this spring,” he concluded.

‘More Work To Be Done’

Similarly, Patrick Witt, executive director of the US President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, discussed the progress on the crypto market structure bill on Friday.

Speaking with Yahoo Finance, Witt stated, “We are working hard to address the issues that were raised that led to the postponement of that markup and hopefully get that back on the book soon.”

He highlighted that lawmakers were able to pass the Senate Agriculture Committee’s half of the CLARITY Act, which handles the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s portion of the bill.

The Crypto Council’s executive director outlined that once the Senate Banking Committee’s portion of the bill is passed, the two pieces of legislation will need to be reconciled before a final vote on the Senate floor. “So, more work to be done, but we are a step closer with the passage of the Ag portion of this a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

Discussing who must bend to advance the bill, Witt affirmed that both sides would have to compromise. “It’s unfortunate that this has become such a big issue, because ultimately, this is not the stablecoin bill that was the GENIUS Act,” he said.

“What we’ve encouraged both sides to do is find a middle ground. Let’s use a scalpel heel here to address this narrow issue of idle yield (…). But let’s not take a chainsaw out of this; let’s not let this derail the bill. There is so much goodness in this bill, no matter what your perspective is,” Witt continued.

He listed some of the “excellent measures” proposed in the bill, including the clear line between the SEC and the CFTC, regulatory jurisdiction, and developer protections, which he considers to be “critical to future-proof this industry from a future Gary Gensler or, God forbid, a Secretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Warren.”

Lastly, he shared that the White House might host another meeting between the banking and crypto industry to discuss the payment of stablecoin rewards.

crypto, bitcoin, btc, btcusdt

Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $68,258 in the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

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Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary wins $2.8M defamation suit against Ben ‘BitBoy’ Armstrong

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Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary wins $2.8M defamation suit against Ben ‘BitBoy’ Armstrong

Kevin O’Leary, an entrepreneur and television investor best known for Shark Tank, secured a $2.8 million judgment against Ben Armstrong, a crypto content creator who operated under the name BitBoy, in a defamation case decided this week by a federal court in Miami.

According to a recent order, the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida awarded O’Leary $750,000 for emotional distress, $78,000 for harm to his reputation, and $2 million in punitive damages after Armstrong failed to appear or respond throughout the proceeding.

The dispute arose from posts Armstrong made in March 2025, accusing O’Leary of involvement in a fatal boating accident that occurred in 2019. O’Leary was a passenger in the incident, and his wife was later cleared of wrongdoing following a trial.

Armstrong’s posts, which drew roughly 156,000 views, also included O’Leary’s personal phone number and encouraged followers to contact him. The disclosure triggered a suspension on the social platform and prompted O’Leary to increase his annual security spending by an estimated $200,000.

The court found that Armstrong acted with actual malice and noted his pattern of hostile communications, including messages sent to judges in separate proceedings.

Armstrong sought to have the default judgment overturned, citing incarceration and mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder.

However, the court rejected Armstrong’s request, noting that he had actual notice of the lawsuit and had already been properly served, yet he waited nearly a year to act.

The court also found that setting aside the default judgment would unfairly prejudice O’Leary, who had already prepared the motions and expert reports and had attended a full evidentiary hearing.

Fraud Exposed: 40,000 Investors Caught in Crypto Ponzi as Jury Finds Sales Leader Liable

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Fraud Exposed: 40,000 Investors Caught in Crypto Ponzi as Jury Finds Sales Leader Liable

A federal jury delivered a sweeping verdict in a crypto Ponzi scheme that ensnared roughly 40,000 investors, marking a decisive step in escalating enforcement efforts and intensifying scrutiny of large-scale digital asset fraud. Crypto Ponzi Targeting 40,000 Investors Crushed—Verdict Signals Stronger Market Oversight Ahead The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a statement on […]

Why Compliance Must Catch Up With Reality

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Why Compliance Must Catch Up With Reality

Dr Nicola Harding, criminologist and expert in fraud and financial crime, delivered a refreshingly human perspective on an industry often dominated by regulation, process, and technology. Harding’s work sits at the intersection of lived experience, behavioural insight, and crime prevention — and her central message is clear: compliance must evolve in line with the reality of modern crime.

For Harding, the most encouraging aspect of Catalyst is the collective willingness to move beyond “tick-box compliance.” The financial crime landscape has changed dramatically, yet many compliance frameworks remain rooted in assumptions from a different era. Just because something has always been done a certain way, she argues, does not mean it is still fit for purpose. Crime evolves quickly — and compliance must move with it, not trail behind.

While much of the industry discussion around AI is framed through fear and vulnerability, Harding takes a more optimistic — and pragmatic — view. Criminals are already using advanced technologies, including AI. The real risk, she suggests, lies in not using those same tools defensively. When applied intelligently, emerging technologies can help shift compliance into the background — where, when done well, it should sit. The ultimate goal is a world where most people never have to think about compliance at all, because systems quietly protect them without friction.

Harding is characteristically blunt when it comes to the future of financial crime. Fraud already accounts for more than 40% of all recorded crime in the UK, with similar patterns emerging globally. That reality is not going away. What must change, however, is how the industry conceptualises criminals themselves. Increasingly, financial crime is being committed by a generation that has never known a world without smartphones, apps, and constant connectivity. These are not individuals “learning” technology — they are immersed in it from birth.

This shift demands a fundamental rethink of compliance strategy. Legacy assumptions about who criminals are and how they operate no longer hold. Defences designed for yesterday’s threats will not stop today’s attacks.

When asked what compliance leaders should do right now, Harding’s advice is deceptively simple: get the basics right. In a world of constant regulatory change and pressure, fundamentals are often overlooked. Know your customer — but also be your customer. Harding challenges compliance professionals to regularly go through their own onboarding journeys, experience friction firsthand, and test whether controls work as intended rather than as assumed.

Her message is both sobering and empowering. Financial crime is not disappearing. But by grounding compliance in reality, embracing new tools intelligently, and staying relentlessly focused on fundamentals, institutions can build defences that are not just compliant — but genuinely effective.

New Binance Controversy: Investigators Alleging Iranian Sanctions Violations Fired

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New Binance Controversy: Investigators Alleging Iranian Sanctions Violations Fired

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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is facing renewed scrutiny following an exclusive report published by Fortune on Friday that raises fresh questions about the exchange’s internal compliance controls and sanctions oversight.

Alleged Sanctions Breaches

According to multiple sources and internal documents reviewed by the publication, members of Binance’s compliance team identified transactions suggesting that entities linked to Iran received more than $1 billion through the platform between March 2024 and August 2025. 

The transfers were reportedly conducted using the stablecoin Tether (USDT) on the Tron blockchain. If confirmed, such activity could represent potential violations of US sanctions laws.

The report states that after internal investigators documented their findings and submitted reports through official channels, at least five members of the compliance team were dismissed beginning in late 2025. 

The individuals allegedly terminated included professionals with prior law enforcement experience in Europe and Asia. At least three of them had held senior roles within Binance, overseeing special investigations and global financial crime inquiries.

In addition to those firings, the report indicates that at least four other senior compliance officials have either resigned or been forced out over the past three months. The individuals cited by Fortune spoke anonymously, citing concerns about potential legal repercussions.

Robert Appleton, a partner at the law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky who previously led sanctions and Iran‑related cases at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), described the situation as surprising. 

“That’s rather shocking that that happened under a monitorship with [Binance] internal investigators,” Appleton told the magazine, referencing the government oversight imposed on the company following earlier enforcement actions.

Former Binance CEO Pushes Back On New Allegations

The latest controversy unfolds against the backdrop of Binance’s significant legal settlement in 2023. That year, the exchange pleaded guilty to violations of anti‑money laundering (AML) and know‑your‑customer (KYC) requirements.

As part of the resolution, the exchange’s co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) stepped down as CEO, and Binance accepted government‑imposed monitorships intended to strengthen its compliance framework and usher in what the company described at the time as a new era of “regulatory maturity.”

Zhao has publicly rejected the claims raised in the recent report. In remarks addressing the article, he stated that he does not have detailed knowledge of the situation but argued that the narrative appears inconsistent. 

The former executive suggested that, even if the allegations were accurate, an alternative interpretation could be that investigators were dismissed for failing to prevent the alleged transactions. 

Zhao also questioned whether third‑party anti‑money laundering tools—similar to those used by law enforcement agencies—had identified the transactions in question. Although he no longer runs Binance, Zhao said that during his tenure, every transaction was screened through multiple external AML monitoring systems.

He further criticized reliance on unnamed sources, suggesting that anonymous accounts can be used to construct negative narratives, particularly if the individuals involved are dissatisfied or have ulterior motives.

Binance
The daily chart shows BNB experiencing increased volatility over the past week, trading at $615. Source: BNBUSDT on TradingView.com

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

Justin Sun Highlights AI and Resilient Blockchain Infrastructure at Consensus Hong Kong 2026

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Justin Sun Highlights AI and Resilient Blockchain Infrastructure at Consensus Hong Kong 2026

This content is provided by a sponsor. PRESS RELEASE. Geneva, Switzerland, February 14, 2026 — TRON DAO, the community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet through blockchain technology and decentralized applications ( dApps), proudly served as a continuous sponsor of CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong 2026 and showcased AI and Stablecoin Infrastructure Leadership. […]

Former City Minister John Glen MP Joins Open Banking Board at Pivotal Moment

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Former City Minister John Glen MP Joins Open Banking Board at Pivotal Moment

Open Banking Limited (OBL), the body responsible for setting open banking standards in the UK, has appointed the Rt Hon John Glen MP as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Rt Hon John Glen MP

The appointment comes at a critical juncture for the sector as it prepares for the transition to a permanent “Future Entity” and the implementation of a new long-term regulatory framework.

A strategic addition

Glen brings significant regulatory and policy experience to the board, having served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) from 2018 to 2022. During his tenure, he played a leading role in shaping the UK’s post-Brexit financial services strategy and managing relationships with regulators like the FCA and PRA.

His arrival coincides with increasing momentum in the sector, following the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) recent call for the industry to unite behind a single proposal for the next phase of open banking.

John Glen MP commented on his new role: “Open Banking is one of the UK’s most important achievements within financial services; strengthening competition, driving innovation, and giving consumers and businesses greater choice. As adoption grows the focus must now shift to scale an impact, ensuring that the framework can continue deliver meaningful economic value and retain long-term competitiveness for the UK.”

Transitioning to the ‘Future Entity’

Since its launch in January 2018, open banking has grown significantly, now boasting more than 16.5 million user connections across the UK and contributing an estimated £4billion to the economy. Payments via open banking reached nearly 33 million in November 2025 alone.

As the ecosystem prepares to move away from the current OBL structure—originally instigated under the CMA’s Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017—the focus is on establishing a resilient, industry-led Future Entity. OBL is currently in discussions with the industry to facilitate collaboration on the design of this new body.

Marion King, chair and trustee of Open Banking Limited, welcomed Glen’s appointment: “John brings an invaluable understanding of the financial services sector and regulatory landscape, alongside a deep appreciation of how industry and government can work together to deliver a globally competitive financial services ecosystem. Our primary role is to enable the ecosystem to come together and drive forward open innovation in a sustainable way…”

Glen joins a board that includes Marion King (Chair), Henk Van Hulle (CEO), Jeremy Newman (Senior iNED), and Claudio Pollack (iNED).

Clarity Act will lift Bitcoin price, says Treasury Secretary Bessent – DL News

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Clarity Act will lift Bitcoin price, says Treasury Secretary Bessent – DL News

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said passing the Clarity Act would help Bitcoin.
  • Key crypto legislation is currently in a deadlock.
  • Crypto markets have been battered since October.

As crypto prices reel, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that advancing stalled crypto legislation, including the long-debated Clarity Act, will help steady battered markets and restore investor confidence.

Bitcoin’s price has fallen roughly half from its October 2025 record high, and Washington remains deadlocked over how to regulate crypto.

In a Thursday interview with CNBC, Bessent was asked what he thought about the current state of crypto prices.

“Bitcoin has a history of volatile movement,” Bessent said. “But part of the volatility here is self induced: there is a group of Democrats who want to work with Republicans on getting a market structure bill — it’s called the Clarity bill — but there are a group of crypto firms who have been blocking it.”

Crypto executives have been hashing out the Clarity Act with US banking representatives and regulators at the White House the past month.

The bill, which aims to set in stone digital asset regulation, has been in a deadlock after the US’ biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, pulled support for the bill in January.

Since then, crypto bigwigs and banking representatives have continued to meet, with lawyers from Ripple and Coinbase saying that meetings this week were “productive” and that “progress was made.”

‘Comfort to markets’

Bessent went on to say that while crypto investors should know what they’re getting themselves into when buying the volatile asset class, clear legislation would help soothe markets.

Bitcoin’s price has shed nearly 50% of its value since it notched a new all-time high in October. Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market value, has fared worse, now worth $2,048, a 58% drop from its high of $4,946 in August.

Bitcoin is down year-to-date. Source: CoinGecko.

Crypto markets tanked in October when the biggest liquidation event in Bitcoin’s history wiped out $19 billion in leveraged bets. Major coins have struggled to recover since.

“So in a time when we are having one of these historically volatile selloffs, I think some clarity on the Clarity bill would give great comfort to the market, and we could move forward from there,” added Bessent. “It’s very important to get this done.”

Meanwhile, regulators and senior banking executives have clashed with the crypto industry over one of the bill’s most contentious elements, the rules governing stablecoins.

Banking executives have warned that unless Congress bans stablecoin rewards, people will park their money on crypto exchanges, rather than banks. That would limit banks’ ability to lend to US businesses, the executives say.

Coinbase and other crypto companies are pushing for their yield-bearing stablecoin products to continue. They counter that stricter limits will curb innovation and tilt the playing field in favour of “TradFi” incumbents.

“There’s a lot of innovation that goes on adjacent to crypto — in the blockchain, in DeFi — so I think it’s important to get this clarity bill done as soon as possible, and on the president’s desk this spring,” said Bessent.

Crypto executives and banking chiefs now have until March 1 to reach an agreement on the market structure bill.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

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