Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a gathering with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and City Affairs Committee on the difficulty of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.
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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says he would not get the enchantment of stablecoins, however he can also’t afford to remain on the sidelines.
It is the message Dimon gave Tuesday when requested throughout an earnings convention name about whether or not his firm, the most important and most influential U.S. financial institution, was exploring the fee expertise.
Stablecoins, because the identify suggests, are a kind of cryptocurrency designed to keep up a gentle worth which might be normally pegged to a fiat forex just like the U.S. greenback. Final month, JPMorgan introduced it’s going to launch a extra restricted model of a stablecoin that solely works for JPMorgan purchasers; a real stablecoin would presumably be extra universally accepted.
“We will be concerned in each JPMorgan deposit coin and stablecoins to know it, to be good at it,” Dimon mentioned. “I believe they’re actual, however I do not know why you’d need to [use a] stablecoin versus simply fee.”
Dimon, 69, is among the most vocal opponents of sure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. However his financial institution is a juggernaut within the international funds business, serving to transfer almost $10 trillion day by day, and so it is smart that they’d discover stablecoins at a time when the regulatory framework for the expertise has opened up.
Failing to take action may cede floor to fintech gamers who want to recreate parts of the regulated monetary ecosystem, Dimon mentioned on Tuesday.
“You understand, these guys are very good,” Dimon mentioned of his fintech rivals. “They’re making an attempt to determine a technique to create financial institution accounts, to get into fee methods and rewards applications, and now we have to be cognizant of that. And the way in which to be cognizant is to be concerned.”
Citigroup, BofA cash?
Stablecoins may supply a probably sooner and cheaper type of fee over conventional banking rails together with ACH and SWIFT, that are decades-old methods that sometimes take days to settle.
Citigroup executives mentioned Tuesday that the financial institution was “trying on the issuance of a Citi stablecoin” amongst a number of methods to play within the house. The most important alternative is round tokenized deposits and in offering custody for crypto belongings, they mentioned.
Financial institution of America CEO Brian Moynihan has additionally mentioned his agency would get entangled in stablecoins.
A method may very well be for conventional banks to collaborate by way of the collectively owned Early Warning Companies. That may be much like the way in which they banded collectively to supply Zelle for fast peer-to-peer funds as a technique to defend turf in opposition to PayPal and Block’s Money App.
When requested on Tuesday a couple of attainable collaboration amongst banks, Dimon declined to provide a selected reply.
“That is a terrific query, and we’ll depart it remaining as a query,” Dimon mentioned. “You’ll be able to assume we’re eager about all that.”
With reporting from CNBC’s Jesse Pound
