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Banks’ war with crypto heats up

Aug 15, 2025, 5:19am EDT
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Brendan Blumer, Chairman of Bullish, and David Bonanno, CFO of Bullish, look at the price of the stock for Bullish during the company’s IPO
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

As cryptocurrency firms rack up policy wins under President Donald Trump, banks this week grew more overt in their efforts to push back.

The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute and Consumer Bankers Association released a statement Thursday slamming the Financial Technology Association after it led crypto and other execs in calling on Trump to stop banks from charging to access customer data.

The tussle came days after the same banking groups urged lawmakers to stop crypto exchanges from paying interest on stablecoins, which they warned could steer enough money away from banks to increase lending costs.

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad hit back, calling that argument “fearmongering.”

The faultlines are here to stay: The banking groups asked senators to include language closing the “interest loophole” in their bid to overhaul crypto regulation, a person familiar with the request told Semafor, an idea crypto groups will resist.

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