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Dimon slams Coinbase chief as banks unite against CLARITY Act
Dimon called stablecoin a potentially legitimate payment rail for cross-border and small-dollar transfers.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong “full of sh*t” for claiming to speak for the whole crypto industry.
Speaking on FOX Business’s ‘Mornings With Maria‘ on Friday, the billionaire banker vowed to fight the current stablecoin legislation, arguing it lacks the AML, KYC, capital and consumer protection requirements that banks are legally obligated to follow.
“We’re not worried. We think it should be fair. If he takes deposits like a bank, he should have bank rules,” Dimon stressed, addressing questions about whether banks are worried about losing money to crypto platforms. “We have social requirements, legal, liquidity requirements, capital requirements, AML requirements, financial reporting requirements, transparency requirements. If he wants to be a bank, be a bank.”
The legislation, known as CLARITY Act, is heading to the next stage of the Senate markup process after clearing the Senate Banking Committee, with the Banking and Agriculture Committees now working to merge their versions into final Senate text.
Some estimates suggest that if stablecoin yields become widely available under a clear regulatory framework, as much as $6 trillion could flow out of traditional bank deposits and into digital alternatives.
“The second issue is not really related to rewards and interest on stable coins. It’s also about AML, BSA, KYC, because when you are in a bank system, it’s already been through all that,” Dimon said.
The JPMorgan CEO said Armstrong was spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington to push through legislation that Dimon argued was fundamentally unfair to banks. He added that the banking industry, including small banks, credit unions and the ABA, would fight the bill.
Dimon said he would want nothing to do with stablecoins if the bill passed as written, predicting it would blow up on its own. However, he clarified that he still views blockchain as a legitimate technology and believes stablecoins have the potential to serve as a legitimate payment system, particularly for cross-border and small-dollar transactions.
Dimon also made clear that he views the real competitive threat not from crypto but from fintech companies like Revolut, Stripe, Chime, SoFi, and PayPal chipping away at traditional banking’s edges.
Capital One’s recent acquisition of Brex and Citadel’s expansion into trading came up as examples of the kind of innovation that actually concerns him. Stablecoins, by comparison, he described as “not that worried about.”