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Trump Treasury Pick Bessent Opposes Idea of U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency
Scott Bessent, who is immersed in the Senate confirmation process as President-elect Donald Trump's Treasury secretary nominee, only addressed crypto briefly.
Jan 16, 2025, 8:10 p.m.
What to know:
- Tax policy superseded crypto as the hot topic at Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent's hearing in the Senate.
- Bessent had a chance to issue a resounding “no” to a future U.S. central bank digital currency, and he said that he wanted the U.S. to have a “2025 approach” to digital currency.
U.S. senators questioning President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, didn't spend much time on cryptocurrency issues in his nomination hearing on Thursday. But he had a chance to register strong opposition to a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) and to note that he favors a modern outlook on crypto.
The billionaire hedge fund manager told the Senate Finance Committee, which is set to consider confirmation of his nomination, that the Federal Reserve shouldn’t issue a digital dollar — a controversial idea that's widely seen by the crypto industry as a governmental incursion on its turf.
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"I see no reason for the U.S. to have a central bank digital currency," he said. "In my mind, a central bank digital currency is for countries who have no other investment alternatives."
Dozens of countries around the world, notably China, have launched or piloted CBDCs. But Bessent they have generally pursued them out “out of necessity," and that the U.S. has no need.
Read More: U.S. Fed Chair Powell Says 'Nowhere Near' Pursuing CBDC, Won't Spy on Americans
At another point in Thursday's hearing, he was asked about the department's financial-crimes arm, and in the context of terrorist financing, he said, "I believe we have to have a 2025 approach to … digital currencies."
The sentiment was immediately embraced by the crypto-backed Ceder Innovation Foundation in a social-media post, saying, "Too many politicians have been working with a 20th century outlook which not only hurts digital innovators, but also global security."
Bessent, who made his fortune in hedge funds, shed hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bitcoin exchange-traded fund investment after accepting Trump's nomination, demonstrating he's had skin-in-the-game to back up his pro-crypto rhetoric.
"Crypto is about freedom and the crypto economy is here to stay," he said in an interview with Fox Business in July.
Read More: Trump Picks Pro-Crypto Hedge Fund Manager Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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