JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has lengthy been among the many crypto sector’s most notable skeptics. Dimon vowed in 2017 to fireplace any JPMorgan dealer who traded bitcoin and has referred to as the oldest cryptocurrency a “fraud” and a “pet rock.” Extra just lately, although, Dimon has turn out to be extra open to the know-how and, this week, he acknowledged that blockchain-based firms at the moment are amongst his financial institution’s rivals.
In his annual shareholder letter revealed on Monday, Dimon stated “a whole new set of competitors is emerging based on blockchain, which includes stablecoins, smart contracts and other forms of tokenization.”
Dimon added that JPMorgan might want to up its recreation to keep off competitors from the upstarts, writing: “We need to roll out our own blockchain technology.”
JPMorgan has been quietly rolling out its personal blockchain know-how for a number of years now. The financial institution unveiled its JPM Coin operating on a permissioned blockchain in 2019. Extra just lately, its Kinexys blockchain unit has continued to develop into areas like tokenization and funds. JPMorgan has explored permissionless blockchains, too: The co-CEOs of Industrial and Funding Banking on the agency just lately touted its involvement within the 2025 U.S. industrial paper issuance on Solana for Galaxy Digital Holdings.
Dimon’s views on crypto started to alter in earnest final yr. In July, he proclaimed himself to be a “believer in stablecoins” and, throughout the Fortune Most Highly effective Girls Summit in October, he reiterated that “blockchain is real” and predicted it might exchange components of the monetary system. His newest feedback underscore how the crypto sector has now turn out to be one thing else: a competitor to JPMorgan itself.
Awaiting readability
Dimon’s newest feedback on blockchain come because the financial institution has been sparring with the crypto business in Washington, D.C. over a closely-watched piece of crypto laws referred to as the CLARITY Act.
The invoice would set up a U.S. regulatory framework for crypto, resolving long-running ambiguities involving the duties of various monetary regulators and registration standards for crypto companies. Proponents of the legislation argue that clearer crypto guidelines can shield shoppers whereas reversing a “regulation-by-enforcement” strategy that has traditionally stifled crypto innovation within the U.S.
CLARITY handed the Home however hit a snag within the Senate earlier this yr over provisions that sought to make it more durable for stablecoin issuers to supply rewards to holders. The GENIUS Act, a legislative framework for stablecoins handed in 2025, restricts stablecoin issuers from paying yield to holders. Nonetheless, crypto exchanges reminiscent of Coinbase are in a position to custody stablecoins for issuers and cross alongside rewards to holders. Banks have lobbied Congress to shut this “loophole,” arguing that yield-bearing stablecoins might be a possible substitute for financial institution deposits, which may considerably scale back banks’ deposit base.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong got here out in opposition to a draft of CLARITY in January partly as a result of, in Armstrong’s telling, banning stablecoin rewards permits banks to “ban their competition.” Coinbase earns a major quantity of income from USDC curiosity, and a ban on stablecoin rewards may presumably harm the corporate’s backside line. Amid the back-and-forth, Dimon reportedly accosted Armstrong on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, telling the Coinbase CEO he’s “full of shit.”
In a Fox Enterprise interview April 1, Coinbase Chief Authorized Officer Paul Grewal stated the banks and stablecoin firms are “very close to a deal.”
With extra crypto-friendly regulators in cost underneath the Trump administration, firms within the crypto sector have currently proven a willingness to turn out to be extra bank-like. Various crypto companies have acquired conditional approval for a nationwide belief banking constitution from the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex. These financial institution charters, whereas considerably slim, allow crypto companies to do issues like custody consumer property.
As crypto rivals have turn out to be extra formidable, JPMorgan has additionally bolstered its crypto capabilities. In an investor report penned Monday, the co-CEOs of the agency’s Industrial and Funding Banking division famous that transactions on JPMorgan’s blockchain-based merchandise had grown thirtyfold since 2023.
