Stablecoins will preserve dollar dominance, Bessent says

Driving the news: The White House held its first Digital Asset Summit on Friday, with many of the top leaders in the cryptocurrency industry and members of the Trump cabinet.

What they're saying: "As President Trump has directed, we are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world, and we will use stablecoins to do that," Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said during a publicly streamed portion of the meeting.

• Bessent said he would work with the Office of the Controller of the Currency and the IRS to rescind any guidance that undermine the digital asset markets.
• He also said his agency would work on the "stablecoin regime."

What we're watching: Congress.

• "I also want to express my strong support for the efforts of lawmakers in Congress as they work on bills to provide regulatory certainty for dollar backed stablecoins and the digital assets market," President Trump said.
• The top priorities for blockchain proponents in the legislature have been a law providing clear legal boundaries for stablecoin businesses in the U.S., as well as guidance from Congress about how to regulate the overall crypto industry.

• Legislation has been introduced on only one of those two priorities, however: Sen. Bill Hagerty's (R.-Tenn.) stablecoin bill.

The bottom line: Trump has checked the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve off his crypto to-do list, so it looks like stablecoins are next up.