#白宫加密会议 Washington's "Lackeys" and Wall Street's Butcher Knife: How Bessent Turned Crypto Regulation into a Street Brawl

The air on Capitol Hill is thick with a mixture of aged leather and desperate sweat, but on February 4, 2026, the scene at the House Financial Services Committee hearing smelled more like a freshly ignited powder keg. If you expected a refined debate on monetary policy, you came to the wrong set. This was a street fight in tailored suits.
When New York Congressman Gregory Meeks pointed at newly appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's nose and shouted "Stop being a flunky for the President," Wall Street traders barely had time to put down their coffee. Just minutes earlier, Maxine Waters had desperately asked, "Who can make him shut up?" This wasn't a hearing; it was a violent showdown between the crypto world and the old financial order.
It's not just about that suspicious "Clarity Act," but also about the $500 million suddenly flowing from the UAE royal family into Trump family crypto project World Liberty Financial. Bessent sat there, with the indifference and arrogance typical of hedge fund managers, not only defending a policy but standing on a platform of naked financial Darwinism: whoever controls the definition of regulation owns the franchise for the next four years.

"Graveyard Stability" and Checks from the UAE
Bessent is a smart man—smart enough to know when to use grand narratives to cover up dirty details. When Democrats questioned why UAE intelligence chiefs would pour billions into Trump family crypto projects just before the inauguration, Bessent didn't answer directly. Instead, he threw out a highly provocative metaphor—warning that overregulation could lead to "stability of the graveyard."
In plain English, that means: don’t block everyone’s money-making.
Behind this metaphor is a carefully crafted financial magic trick.
Bessent, a former Soros deputy, knows well that liquidity is the market’s god. His so-called "clarity" isn't about giving underground coders a way out but about issuing a legal hunting license to giants like Blackstone, JPMorgan, and the Trump family. The situation is absurdly funny. On one hand, the Treasury Department, under the banner of "anti-money laundering," plans to wipe out all unlicensed DeFi protocols with the Clarity Act; on the other hand, when foreign sovereign wealth funds openly funnel benefits to the White House via cryptocurrency, our Treasury Secretary turns a blind eye and even mocks questioning lawmakers as "not serious enough." This double standard is no longer a regulatory loophole; it is regulation itself.
In Bessent’s view, cryptocurrencies shouldn't be a decentralized utopia but the latest casino where Washington’s power elite and Middle Eastern oil capital conjure dollars out of thin air.

The Trojan Horse of Bank Lobbyists
If Bessent is the frontman, then the traditional banking lobby behind him is the one handing out the knives. Over the past four years, Wall Street has evolved from initial fear and resistance to "embrace and devour." They realize that as long as the rules are complex enough and compliance costs high enough for billionaires to play, Bitcoin is no different from Nasdaq.
This hearing’s conflict is essentially the final cry of crypto natives.
The regulatory framework Bessent pushes, called "Clarity," is actually "Cleansing." By requiring all crypto entities to hold federal banking licenses or fully compliant custody mechanisms, he is effectively seizing the private keys from users and handing them back to his old friends on Wall Street. Think about it: when Congressman Micks questioned whether UAE investments posed a national security threat, Bessent casually deflected the issue to the "independent" Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This is not just shirking responsibility; it’s an act of power arrogance. Because everyone knows that under the current administrative structure, so-called independent agencies have long been infiltrated by interest groups behind the revolving door. Bankers don’t need innovation—they only need monopoly. And Bessent is building a wall for them: inside are World Liberty Financial and licensed giants; outside are ordinary developers who could be raided by the FBI at any moment.

The Final Cover Is Torn Off
The most head-turning part of this hearing isn’t even the profanity that needed silencing, but the fact that it completely tore off the mask of "financial neutrality." We used to think the Treasury Secretary was the steward of the nation’s accounts; now we see he’s the gatekeeper of family business. When Bessent mocks California Governor Newsom as a "brainless triceratops" or attacks Senator Warren, his aggression isn’t because he’s lost his mind but because he’s fully aware of his hand. In an era where a presidential family can directly issue currency to harvest global liquidity, traditional political etiquette is rapidly depreciating like fiat currency.
In the next four years, the crypto industry will face a schizophrenic survival state:
On one hand, Bitcoin might soar as it’s incorporated into national strategic reserves;
On the other, the true decentralized spirit will be ruthlessly crushed by meat grinders like the Clarity Act.
Bessent’s "what can you do to me" attitude at the hearing is precisely a microcosm of the future financial order—rules are made for the weak, and for those who get UAE royal checks, rules are just another tradable asset.
Washington politicians are still arguing over the word "lackey," but the real plunderers no longer care about titles. They only care whether, when the music stops, they hold the private keys or worthless votes.