COINBASE VS JP MORGAN?! Brian Armstrong Just Destroyed Jamie Dimon!! | EP 1522

**Optin** (0:02)
As tensions between the big banks and the Bitcoin industry rise, the gloves are coming off over the Clarity Act. Last week, Jamie Dimon cursed out Brian Armstrong on national television and said they will fight this bill to the very end. Well, today, we finally hear from the CEO of Coinbase, and the response might actually surprise you. So let's play that clip and we will chat about it. And I'll give you an update of where we currently stand with the Clarity Act and everything we need to know.

**Brian Armstrong** (0:32)
Well, I've got a lot of respect for Jamie Dimon, so it was kind of sad to hear that. Jp Morgan is a great company. He's put up incredible numbers there. I feel like I've learned a lot from him as a CEO. And ultimately, this isn't really about Jamie Dimon or me, even though people like to focus on that. It's just about how we get clear rules in America so that this industry can get built here and benefit everyone. I think that would be good for American consumers. I think it'd be good for the banks. There's a whole set of new provisions and benefits that banks get in there.
In this draft legislation, it'd be great for crypto companies as well. Most importantly, it's good for America. So hopefully, we can get past the absolutisms and just see if we can get this bill over the finish line.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:15)
And I hear your point on the policy piece. I think one of the reasons this has drawn so much attention is just because it's not very often that you hear one of the biggest CEOs in America talk like that about somebody else. I wonder why you think that you've sort of drawn so much personal animosity from Dimon, especially as you say, when you have so much respect for him.

**Brian Armstrong** (1:36)
Yeah, you know, honestly, I'm like a little perplexed by that. I think in general, when people communicate through the media, nuance gets lost. Same thing with social media.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:45)
There's not a ton of nuance and full of shit, I have to say.

**Brian Armstrong** (1:49)
I agree. I mean, yeah, I think it's better just in general to get in a room and chat one-on-one with people. That usually solves it.
I've had opportunities to do that with Jamie and other people on his team who are great in the past. And so, yeah, I don't know exactly what that's all about. Like crypto, you have to remember, is the most bipartisan issue right now in DC in my view. And just there's a lot of people on both sides of the aisle, not to mention 50 million Americans who have used crypto. There's about 3 million advocates who signed up to stand with crypto.org, who wanted to elect pro crypto candidates. So there's a big movement behind this people who just want to see clear rules on the books. And we saw senders Tillis and also Brooks. I thought they did a really great job of trying to bring both sides together, the bank lobby and the crypto lobby and say, hey, you guys got to work out a deal. A compromise means that both sides are going to leave feeling a bit unhappy. We didn't love aspects of it of where it landed.
I imagined that they wouldn't either, but I thought we could both live with it. And so at this point, I think the banks got really a lot of what they asked for in that. They said they didn't want any rewards paid on idle balances. They got that. They wanted additional rulemaking. They wanted an anti-evasion language. They wanted disclosures on stable coins, marketing restrictions. They really got all those things. So I think at this point, I'm hoping that we can move forward and go with what the Senate Banking Committee drafted as a compromise.

**Nico** (3:14)
Ladies and gentlemen, that's what you call media training, right? That was a perfect answer from someone. Obviously, clearly, he's been trained on what to say. Very political answer.
But I just kind of want to focus on the substance of, because he buried the lead there, right? Like the journalist, obviously, shout out to Politico, shout out to, what was that? Ladies podcast. I do want to give a shout out.

**Optin** (3:44)
I'll find it. I'll find it. But shout out for it is the conversation with Dasha Burns on Politico.

**Nico** (3:54)
So shout out to her for recording that podcast.
And she obviously tried to steer the conversation in terms of trying to get Brian Armstrong to react to the comment.
He didn't in the way that would essentially lead to a mudslinging contest, because he doesn't he wants to avoid that completely. And it kind of reminds me of the answer that Senator Lumis gave a week ago when she was asked, Hey, like, what are your thoughts on Jamie Diamond? Jamie Diamond basically saying, Hey, look, this is BS and stuff like that. And she gave a very good answer. Her answer was fantastic. She basically said, like, look, like, he could be misleading people.