Key Takeaways
- Trump took to Truth Social, telling banks they “need to make a good deal with the Crypto Industry”
- Trump also warned American dominance in digital assets could slip away to China if US Congress fails to act.
A private White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong preceded a blunt Truth Social message on Tuesday in which Trump demanded banks stop blocking progress on digital asset legislation, as per a report by Politico.
Hours after the meeting, Trump went public telling banks they “need to make a good deal with the Crypto Industry” and warning that American dominance in digital assets could slip away to China if US Congress fails to act and pass the bill. The post’s language bore a striking resemblance to talking points Armstrong has repeated publicly, including the phrase “Americans should earn more money on their money.”
The crypto market structure bill has been stuck in a limbo since January, when Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott pulled a scheduled markup after Armstrong announced Coinbase could not support the legislation as written.
In January, Armstrong said that Coinbase reversed its support for the bill in an attempt to protect consumers as well as prevent the stifling of market competition. His objection centered on proposed amendments he said would effectively outlaw stablecoin yield rewards — a feature Coinbase offers customers who hold dollar-pegged digital tokens.
Banking associations want any such rewards banned outright, warning that competitive yield rates could draw consumer deposits away from traditional financial institutions and constrain lending across the broader economy. Meanwhile, three separate White House-mediated sessions between banking and crypto representatives have produced no breakthrough.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon entered the fray on Tuesday, arguing that any stablecoin issuer paying interest on customer balances should face the same regulatory framework as banks.
The White House’s Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, disagreed publicly — drawing a line between paying yield and the practice of lending out or rehypothecating reserve funds, the latter of which the GENIUS Act expressly prohibits. “Stablecoins ≠ Deposits,” Witt wrote.
The exchange sits behind Fairshake, a crypto super PAC carrying more than $190 million ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in the country. Coinbase also contributed to Trump’s inaugural committee and his White House ballroom renovation. Armstrong attended inauguration events in January and co-appeared with Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno at a Mar-a-Lago crypto forum in February. No new date has been set for the Senate to revisit the market structure bill.
The crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) offers a definitive legal framework on which tokens are securities, which are commodities, and which agency (the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), or Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) has authority over what.
