Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan, says that stablecoin companies which pay interest to users should

Jamie Dimon, the big boss at JPMorgan Chase, spoke up on Tuesday. He had a clear message about stablecoins. He said that any company issuing them and paying interest on customer balances should follow the same rules as regular banks. That means they'd need to meet capital and liquidity requirements. Oh, and they'd also need deposit insurance. He was careful to make a distinction. Rewards for doing transactions are one thing, he explained. But interest on the money you just leave sitting there? That's different. His main point was simple: if a company acts like a bank by taking deposits, then it has to play by the same rules. It's only fair, and it keeps things safe. This disagreement with Brian Armstrong from Coinbase is heating up. And it's all happening while folks in Washington are trying to figure out new rules for stablecoins. Lawmakers and the White House are right in the middle of debating whether to let issuers pay interest on the assets their customers hold.

Dimon: "Rewards Are Different from Interest"

The head of JPMorgan Chase is adding his voice to the big fight over U.S. crypto laws. He basically said that banks want a level playing field. If a company is going to issue a stablecoin and pay interest on what customers have in their wallets, then they need to follow the same rules traditional lenders do. He talked about this in an interview on CNBC Tuesday. He was responding to reports of tension with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Apparently, this all came to a head right before a key Senate vote on the GENIUS Act was supposed to happen. So, Dimon wanted to be crystal clear about the line between transaction rewards and interest on stored balances. "Rewards are not the same as interest," Dimon stated flatly. "If you're going to hold a balance and pay interest on it, that is a bank. And you should be regulated like a bank."

Competition Needs to Be Fair and Safe

He suggested that banks could probably get behind some kind of compromise. Maybe crypto platforms could offer rewards tied to transactions. That might be okay. But for companies that operate more like a traditional deposit-taking institution? They need to live up to the same standards as banks. That means capital rules, liquidity rules, anti-money laundering checks, and having FDIC insurance. Dimon framed this whole issue as one of fairness and, more importantly, safety. "It's about having a level playing field, product by product," he argued. If you're offering a similar financial service, you should be under similar rules. He warned that if there's no fairness, risks could start piling up outside the regulated system. On the flip side, Armstrong has said he thinks banks should be forced to compete. However, Dimon was quick to point out that JPMorgan is totally fine with competition. In fact, they use blockchain tech in their own business already. They've even created their own deposit token and process payments on distributed ledger systems. "We are all for competition," he said. "But it has to be fair and it has to be level." He also brought up all the extra stuff banks have to do. Things like anti-money laundering checks and community lending requirements. These are meant to protect the whole financial system. "It's for the safety of the system, not just for fair competition," Dimon explained. This whole debate about stablecoin rules is now a really big deal in Washington. Lawmakers are trying to figure out how to regulate things without pushing digital asset activity into some dark, unregulated corner. New versions of the bill are being passed around the White House. But the banks and the crypto industry still can't agree on the main point: should stablecoin issuers be allowed to pay interest on customer balances or not?