The US Senate has confirmed Donald Trump’s pick for US Treasury secretary, billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.
On Jan. 27, the Senate voted 68 to 29 to confirm Besset, with 16 Democrats supporting the nomination.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse congratulated Bessent on X, adding that he was “confident he’ll enact common-sense economic policies, working with the Administration and Congress to grow US tech and crypto innovation.”
As Treasury secretary, Bessent will have influence over the nation’s tax collections and its $28 trillion Treasury debt market. He will also have sway over fiscal policy, financial regulations, international sanctions, and overseas investments.
Source: Brad Garlinghouse
The 62-year-old Tennessee lawmaker strongly supports Trump’s economic agenda, including the renewal of $4 trillion in expiring tax cuts, the implementation of tariffs, and increased oil production. He also pushed back against the idea that Trump’s policies would be inflationary, Reuters reported.
During his confirmation hearing, Bessent said that government spending was “out of control.”
Bessent is known to be pro-crypto and against the notion of a central bank digital currency along with President Trump. “I see no reason for the US to have a central bank digital currency,” he said in a Jan. 16 Senate Finance Committee hearing.
He’s also said a central bank digital currency is for countries that have “no other investment alternatives” and are “doing it out of necessity.”
Bessent told Fox Business in July that he has “been excited about the president’s embrace of crypto, and I think it fits very well with the Republican Party. Crypto is about freedom, and the crypto economy is here to stay.”
Related: Trump’s executive order a 'game-changer' for institutional crypto adoption
Under Trump’s Jan. 23 crypto executive order, the Treasury will take a role in the governmental working group to hash out the strategy for US crypto policy.
Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and the chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will also form part of the working group.
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