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.
“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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
