In brief
- President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused banks of trying to undermine the crypto industry, urging Congress to move quickly on digital-asset market-structure legislation.
- JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon said a day before companies offering stablecoin rewards should operate as banks, warning unequal regulation could harm the financial system.
- It comes as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is moving ahead with rules to implement the GENIUS Act even as broader legislation remains stalled.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday publicly accused major banks of attempting to undermine the administration’s crypto agenda, escalating a growing dispute between Wall Street and digital-asset firms that has stalled a key market-structure bill in Congress.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned that the banking sector was “threatening and undermining” the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and urged lawmakers to quickly pass the CLARITY Act, a separate measure intended to define regulatory oversight of the broader crypto industry.
“The U.S. needs to get Market Structure done, ASAP,” Trump wrote, adding that delays could push the industry overseas. “The Genius Act was the U.S.A.’s first big step to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world, and getting the Clarity Act done is the next step to finish the job.”
The comments come as tensions intensify between traditional financial institutions and crypto companies over whether stablecoin platforms should be allowed to offer yield to users, an issue that has become the primary obstacle to advancing the CLARITY Act in Congress.
At the center of the dispute is Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, who on Monday argued that crypto companies seeking to pay rewards on stablecoin balances should instead operate under banking rules.
“If you want to be a bank, become a bank,” Dimon said in an interview with CNBC, warning that allowing crypto firms to offer yield without the same regulatory framework as banks could destabilize the financial system.
The standoff has helped derail progress on the CLARITY Act, legislation aimed at establishing a comprehensive framework for digital-asset markets.
The bill would define which crypto assets fall under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission and which are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a long-running question that has complicated enforcement and compliance across the industry.
While lawmakers had planned to move the bill through the Senate Banking Committee earlier this year, negotiations broke down after Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase withdrew support, citing amendments that could restrict stablecoin rewards programs.
The GENIUS Act, by contrast, has already been enacted. Trump signed the law last summer, creating the first federal framework governing payment stablecoins, designed to track the value of the U.S. dollar.
The law requires issuers to maintain liquid reserves and comply with anti-money-laundering and risk-management standards.
Regulators are now moving to implement the statute. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a proposed rule last week outlining how banks and other regulated entities could issue and manage payment stablecoins under federal supervision.
“American leadership in digital assets is a national priority, and it remains imperative that the U.S. leads,” Ji Hun Kim, CEO of industry advocacy group the Crypto Council for Innovation, told Decrypt in an emailed statement.
Even so, the broader market-structure legislation remains stuck in limbo.
White House officials had hoped negotiations between bank and crypto lobbyists would produce a compromise by early March.
People involved in the talks say the two sides remain far apart, with banks pushing for tighter limits on stablecoin yield programs and crypto firms insisting such rewards are central to the sector’s growth.
Without a resolution soon, industry participants warn that the chances of passing the CLARITY Act this year could diminish sharply as Congress approaches the midterm election cycle.
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