'Straight up anti-American': Eric Trump slams banks for lobbying against stablecoins

Eric Trump, the son of the U.S. President, denounced big banks for lobbying against crypto and stablecoins, saying that they are depriving customers of better financial opportunities.

In a Wednesday post on social media platform X, Eric Trump called out JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo for contesting efforts to allow U.S. crypto platforms to pay interest on stablecoin holdings.

He added that the American Banking Association and other lobbyists are "spending millions" to ban 4-5% stablecoin yields through the Clarity Act.

"[Big Banks] are lobbying overtime to block Americans from getting higher yields on their savings — while trying to block any rewards or perks from being given to customers," Trump wrote. 

The real estate and crypto entrepreneur stated that U.S. banks pay "rock-bottom" interest rates of around 0.01% to 0.05% in annual percentage yield, much lower than the interest that the Federal Reserve pays them — around 3.65%. 

"It's really about protecting their low-rate monopoly … This is anti-retail, anti-consumer, and straight-up anti-American," Trump said. 

Eric Trump is a co-founder of crypto platform World Liberty Financial, which issues the USD1 stablecoin and WLFI cryptocurrency. The Trump family's involvement in the project has drawn criticism over potential conflicts of interest for the U.S. president.

Level playing field

Banks have argued that allowing yields on stablecoin would drain trillions of dollars in deposits from traditional institutions and potentially create financial instability.

Earlier this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called for a "level playing field," saying that stablecoins offering yield should be subject to the same regulatory framework as traditional bank deposits.

"If you're going to be holding balances and paying interest, that's a bank. You should be regulated like a bank," Dimon said.

Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, pushed back against Dimon's statement, noting that it is a "deceit" to link stablecoin yields to bank-like regulations.

"It is not the paying of yield on a balance per se that necessitates bank-like regulations, but rather the lending out or rehypothecation of the dollars that make up the underlying balance," Witt said.

As the Clarity Act faces delays due to disputes over stablecoin interests, the White House has been facilitating high-level talks between traditional finance and crypto firms. While stakeholders said the gap is narrowing, no final compromise has yet been reached.