The crypto and traditional banking industries have been at odds regarding the specific language that will 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 expressing his discontent about how things were progressing with the CLARITY Act, Dimon went a step further, claiming 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 derided the more than $100 million Coinbase has spent on lobbying and political contributions in Washington. The JPMorgan Chase chief made clear that the banking sector would not yield to the crypto industry, adding, “It will be fought. No one’s gonna bow down 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 Coinbase CEO previously stated that it was the banking lobbyists who were trying 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 AM: “He’s spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington in this thing.”
Maria: “He said he’s representing the whole —”
Dimon: “He’s full of shit.”
Maria: “…well.” pic.twitter.com/Qik9Hnue6U
— Brendan Pedersen (@BrendanPedersen) May 29, 2026
While the GENIUS Act established a regulatory framework for stablecoins when it was signed into law in 2025, it left many open questions. The CLARITY Act is intended to provide further guidance on which crypto tokens are securities offerings 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 individuals 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 matter 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 crypto firms to offer yields or rewards on stablecoins or deposits effectively lets them function like 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 permitting such payments “without the protection they should have” and noted that it falls short on AML and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
The CLARITY Act is part of President Donald Trump’s list of promises made to the crypto industry during the 2024 election, which led the industry to pour millions to back Trump. According to OpenSecrets, pro-crypto super PACs such as Fairshake and its affiliates raised and spent well over $133 million during the 2024 cycle, with Coinbase emerging as one of the largest contributors. Coinbase provided roughly $50 million to Fairshake alone.
Earlier this week, money from the crypto lobby was seen as playing a key role in a Democratic Congressional primary race in Texas that resulted in a 20-year congressman now being sent home. In the race, Rep. Al Green lost to challenger Christian Menefee after the Fairshake-affiliated Protect Progress super PAC spent more than $4 million on the election. Green had earned an F rating from the Stand with Crypto coalition for voting against both the GENIUS Act and earlier versions of the CLARITY Act, while Menefee received an A rating.
Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at Duke University and former bank examiner at the New York Federal Reserve, says the Trump family also stands to benefit from the CLARITY Act because it would allow the WLFI token, from the Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial, to operate as a non-security.
The battle over the future of crypto regulation is yet another illustration of how far crypto is now removed from its cypherpunk roots. The whole point of Bitcoin was to avoid the sorts of trusted third parties that are subject to the sort of government regulation found in the CLARITY Act. When considering factors such as the heavy reliance on backdoored stablecoins, Coinbase collecting fees from its own proprietary blockchain network, and the heavy lobbying efforts for favorable legislation, it’s clearer than ever that the crypto is becoming more and more similar to the traditional banking system it was originally intended to disrupt.
