Crypto CEO who has become the No 1 enemy of America's biggest banks

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong reportedly had an intense moment with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon during last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. A report claims that the CEO of the biggest US crypto company was confronted by the chief executive of the biggest bank of US over accusations that banks are trying to sabotage crypto legislation. A report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the conversation, claimed that Dimon told Armstrong to stop lying on TV. “You are full of s***,” Dimon, a long-time sceptic who has previously described cryptocurrency as a fraud, said while pointing his index finger directly at Armstrong's face as the Coinbase chief was having coffee with former UK prime minister Tony Blair.This comes after Armstrong accused banks of trying to sabotage legislation that would set a new regulatory framework for digital assets during appearances on business TV programmes earlier that week. However, the confrontation wasn't quite in line with the annual forum's mission to foster cooperation among global leaders.As crypto moves into the mainstream of American finance, some of Wall Street's major players are waking up to the threat. While banks have embraced some aspects of crypto, helping people invest in bitcoin and using digital assets to make money transfers more efficient, they are drawing a line at encroachment on their core business, which is consumer deposits.Banks and Coinbase are at odds over whether crypto exchanges should be allowed to offer consumers regular payouts for holding digital tokens. These so-called rewards would pay holders of stablecoins a recurring fee, say 3.5%. Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to real-world currencies like the US dollar.Banks say the payouts are effectively the same as interest on bank accounts, and since banks offer much lower yields, typically under 0.1% in a checking account, they worry that consumers will shift large amounts of money into crypto. According to the banks, this will compromise community banks and business lending.Armstrong and others in the crypto world have argued that the free market should reign and that banks can simply pay higher interest rates to compete with stablecoins or enter the stablecoin business themselves.However, the legislation, known as the Clarity Act, may shape the future of everyday financial services, including bank deposits and electronic payments. In a push to reach a compromise, the White House plans to host a meeting between bank and crypto industry groups with US President Donald Trump's AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, expected to attend, the WSJ report claimed, citing people familiar with the matter. Coinbase's head of US policy, Kara Calvert, is also slated to attend, the report added.Recently, a Senate committee was prepared to vote on a version of the legislation that could effectively ban companies like Coinbase from offering payouts to customers, which could’ve potentially cost crypto companies billions of dollars. Just before the vote, Armstrong took to microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) to write: “After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.There are too many issues, including:- A defacto ban on tokenized equities- DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy- Erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC- Draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competitionWe appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bipartisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo. We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.We'll keep fighting for all Americans and for economic freedom. Crypto needs to be treated on a level playing field with the rest of financial services so we can build this industry in a safe and trusted way in America.”As per the report, the vote was abruptly postponed within hours of the post being shared. Armstrong's pushback didn't end with his X post. He echoed his view in TV appearances, telling Bloomberg that bank lobbyists were "out there trying to ban their competition" and accusing banks of lending out their customers' deposits "without their permission essentially." This led to a series of uncomfortable encounters with bank CEOs at Davos, described by people familiar with the conversations."If you want to be a bank, just be a bank," Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan told Armstrong during a 30-minute meeting last week at the main convention centre in Davos, the report noted.Citigroup's Jane Fraser gave Armstrong less than a minute of her time. Coinbase is a client of both Citi and JPMorgan, and the exchange has business partnerships with other banks.Meanwhile, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf offered Armstrong not even a minute. When Armstrong approached him, Scharf told him that there was nothing for them to talk about. The exchange took place while Dimon, Scharf's former boss, stood nearby, the report added.