The crypto and traditional banking industries have been at odds over the specific language to be included in the CLARITY Act all year, but the battle of words has reached new heights.
The proverbial shots were fired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in a Friday interview with Fox Business. While he expressed his displeasure with how things were moving forward with the CLARITY Act, Dimon went a step further and claimed that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was “full of shit.” Both men sit in opposite camps in the CLARITY Act debate, representing the banking and crypto industries, respectively.
In the interview, Dimon mocked the more than $100 million Coinbase has spent on lobbying and political contributions in Washington. The JPMorgan Chase boss made it clear that the banking sector will not bow to the crypto industry, adding: “It will be fought. No one will bow to this guy or that company.”
Armstrong is largely seen as the leader of the crypto industry’s lobbying efforts on the CLARITY Act. For his part, the CEO of Coinbase previously fixed that it was banking lobbyists who attempted to protect their interests and “ban their competition” using the crypto bill earlier this year.
Jamie Dimon, complaining about the Clarity Act and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong this morning: “He’s spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington on this.”
María: “He said that he represents the whole…”
Dimon: “It’s full of shit.”
Maria: “…well.” pic.twitter.com/Qik9Hnue6U
—Brendan Pedersen (@BrendanPedersen) May 29, 2026
While the GENIUS Law established a regulatory framework for stablecoins when it became law in 2025, it left many questions open. The CLARITY Act aims to provide more guidance on which crypto tokens are offerings of securities regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are commodities regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the level of legal protection for people who are simply developers writing software, and more.
The key area of contention between the banking and crypto industries is related to stablecoins and whether interest can be paid to their holders. Although this issue was partially addressed in the GENIUS Act, the banking industry wants language that more clearly prohibits payments to stablecoin holders that are economically equivalent to bank interest.
Banks argue that allowing cryptocurrency companies to offer returns or rewards on stablecoins or deposits effectively allows them to operate as interest-bearing accounts without the same consumer protections, capital requirements or anti-money laundering safeguards that apply to traditional banks.
On Fox Business, Dimon criticized the bill for allowing such payments “without the protections they should have” and noted that it does not comply with the AML and Bank Secrecy Act.
The CLARITY Act is part of President Donald Trump’s list of promises to the cryptocurrency industry during the 2024 election, which led the industry to invest millions to support Trump. According Open secretsPro-crypto super PACs like Fairshake and its affiliates raised and spent more than $133 million during the 2024 cycle, with Coinbase emerging as one of the largest contributors. Coinbase provided approximately $50 million to Fairshake alone.
Earlier this weekCrypto lobby money was seen as playing a key role in a Democratic congressional primary race in Texas that resulted in a 20-year-old congressman being sent home. In the race, Rep. Al Green lost to challenger Christian Menefee after Fairshake-affiliated super PAC Protect Progress spent more than $4 million on the election. Green had earned an F grade from the Stand with Crypto coalition for voting against both the GENIUS Act and previous versions of the CLARITY Act, while Menefee received an A grade.
Lee Reiners, a professor at Duke University and former banking examiner at the New York Federal Reserve, says The Trump family will also benefit from the CLARITY Act because it would allow Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token to trade worthless.
The battle over the future of cryptocurrency regulation is another illustration of how far cryptocurrencies are now removed from their cypherpunk roots. The goal of Bitcoin was to prevent the type of trusted third parties that are subject to the type of government regulation found in the CLARITY Act. When considering factors such as the great dependence on backdoor stablecoinsCoinbase charges fees from its own proprietary blockchain networkand extensive lobbying efforts to achieve favorable legislation, it is clearer than ever that cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly More similar to the traditional banking system. it was originally intended to disturb.
