Dimon Blasts CLARITY Act, US Seizes $1B Iran Crypto, Coinbase Cleared for Perps

Crypto News

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon escalated his attack on Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong on Friday, warning that the current draft of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act could "blow up" if lawmakers refuse to tighten provisions that would let stablecoin issuers pay yield on customer deposits. Speaking on Fox Business, Dimon said the framework effectively allows interest-bearing dollar tokens without the prudential safeguards applied to insured banks, calling the structure unacceptable for the traditional financial sector. The remarks land as Senate negotiators move to merge the Banking and Agriculture Committee versions of the crypto market structure bill ahead of a planned floor vote.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Reagan National Economic Forum that the United States has now seized roughly one billion dollars in cryptocurrency tied to Iranian sanctions evasion networks, almost double the figure he cited in April. Bessent estimated that Tehran had been routing four hundred to five hundred million dollars a month through digital asset corridors before the crackdown intensified, telling viewers that authorities "just outright grabbed the wallets" of operators who may still be unaware their balances are gone. The disclosure marks the largest state-level recovery of crypto assets from a sanctioned sovereign actor on record.

The seizures form part of Operation Economic Fury, the financial campaign ordered by President Donald Trump to dismantle the funding channels supporting Iran's military and Revolutionary Guard. Since February, the Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned more than one thousand Iran-linked entities and frozen banking relationships across multiple jurisdictions. The single largest action came in late April when Tether immobilised three hundred forty-four million USDT held in two Tron blockchain addresses tied to the IRGC, with on-chain analytics matching the wallets to previously identified Iranian military patterns. The cumulative figure has climbed steadily, with Bessent's latest comments suggesting the running total now nears the ten-figure mark.

Coinbase secured a regulatory breakthrough on Friday after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission cleared the exchange to offer perpetual futures contracts to United States customers through its Deribit subsidiary, acquired last year for two point nine billion dollars. The decision makes Coinbase the first domestic venue authorised to connect retail traders to the global perpetual swap market, a product category that has generated more than five hundred eighty-eight billion dollars in trading volume over the past month. The CFTC's authorisation covers digital commodity contracts for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin and other altcoin markets, though Coinbase will select which assets it deems suitable for domestic rollout.

The Iran seizure programme has also accelerated growth of the federal strategic digital asset reserve, which now holds approximately three hundred twenty-eight thousand Bitcoin worth more than twenty-four billion dollars at current prices, the largest sovereign Bitcoin position publicly identified. Bessent has confirmed that the Treasury will continue to channel forfeited and seized digital assets into the reserve rather than acquire coins through open-market purchases, a policy first formalised earlier this year. The approach treats long-term cold wallet custody of confiscated coins as both a national security tool and a balance-sheet asset.

Back on Capitol Hill, the core dispute slowing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act centres on whether stablecoin issuers may continue to operate rewards programmes that function as high-yield deposit substitutes. Coinbase and other firms argue that banks are lobbying to suppress competition for retail balances, while bank executives insist any institution offering deposit-like products must accept comparable reserve, capital and supervisory requirements. The fight also reaches into DeFi protocols that route stablecoin liquidity to lending pools. The Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees have each passed their own drafts, with staff now working to reconcile the texts before a floor vote.

Friday's developments illustrate how digital assets have moved firmly into the architecture of state power. Washington is simultaneously tightening domestic rules around how tokens interact with bank balance sheets, weaponising stablecoin enforcement against geopolitical rivals and integrating seized cryptocurrency into the federal balance sheet, while regulators open the door to higher-risk derivatives products at home. The common thread is institutional formalisation: Bitcoin, stablecoin and derivatives markets are no longer being treated as parallel systems but as instruments of monetary policy, sanctions enforcement and capital markets supervision. For market participants, the regulatory perimeter is hardening even as access expands.