JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon vowed to fight the CLARITY Act in a Fox Business interview Friday, calling Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong “full of sh–” over his lobbying push.
Banks Won’t Accept Stablecoin Yield Without Regulatory Safeguards
Dimon’s core objection is stablecoin yield.
The CLARITY Act would allow crypto firms to reward customers for holding stablecoins, something banks argue creates direct competition without requiring the same consumer protections banks must follow.
He also flagged the bill’s Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Act provisions as inadequate.
“It allows cryptocurrency firms to effectively pay interest on deposits, stablecoins or something like that, without the protection that they should have,” Dimon said. “The banks will not accept it that way,” he added.
Despite the opposition, Dimon said he supports blockchain technology and sees value in stablecoins for cross-border payments.
His fight is specifically with how the bill handles them. “It’s complicated. The government needs to do it thoughtfully. If they don’t do it thoughtfully, it will be a huge problem,” he said.
Dimon Goes After Armstrong Personally Over Lobbying Spend
Beyond the policy fight, Dimon went after Armstrong directly, claiming the Coinbase CEO is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington to push the legislation over the finish line.
“No one is going to bow down to this guy,” Dimon said. This follows similar remarks Dimon made about Armstrong at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, suggesting the personal friction between the two executives runs deeper than just this bill.
Nine Weeks Left And Opposition Is Growing
The stablecoin yield debate has become the most contested issue around the CLARITY Act, with nine weeks left before the August recess creates a hard deadline.
Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn gives the bill 70% odds of passing while Polymarket traders sit at 61%.
However, Dimon’s public opposition adds serious institutional banking weight to the fight at the worst possible time.
If banks successfully water down or kill the stablecoin yield provision, the direct impact falls on crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers counting on that revenue stream.
For Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), passage of the full bill remains the clearest near-term path to new all-time highs according to Thorn.
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