JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon explicitly criticized the current version of the CLARITY Act (the Digital Asset Market Structure Act) during an appearance on Fox Business on May 29, stating that the banking industry will not accept it. According to CoinPost’s report, the Senate currently has multiple competing priority bills, and investment bank TD Cowen judges the likelihood of this legislation completing the process before August to be low. This means the US regulatory framework for stablecoins and digital asset market structure will, at least through this summer, remain in draft form.
Editorial take: what this news means for the card in your wallet
Let’s start with the conclusion: for the vast majority of usdtcard.net readers — especially those using Asia-Pacific-route virtual cards — the direct impact of this news is close to zero. But it does confirm a reality that matters to you: there will be no clear legal landing for US-domestic compliant USDT card products in the near term.
The core of the CLARITY Act is to define digital assets as “commodity vs. security” and set a clear bank-level regulatory path for stablecoin issuers. If it passes, it would theoretically give rise to more compliant card products issued by federally regulated, licensed institutions under US oversight. Dimon’s opposition, combined with a congested Senate agenda, means this path has been pushed further out.
The impact on specific cards varies by scenario:
- Cards centered on US BIN / US subscription use cases — such as the former MPCard US Direct variant (currently suspended) and some products relying on US-based issuing banks — will continue to operate in a gray zone. Regulation hasn’t tightened, but no clear path to “legalization” has been given either.
- Asia-Pacific-route cards — the Asia Elite variant covered in the MPCard review, Bybit Card, RedotPay — have issuing entities and settlement paths that were never under US jurisdiction to begin with, so CLARITY’s progress or stalling doesn’t change their current operating logic.
Expected time windows:
- Within 7 days: No card’s fees, limits, or availability will change because of this news.
- Within 30 days: Watch whether the Senate places CLARITY on its agenda, though no action is expected at the issuer level.
- Within 90 days: If TD Cowen’s assessment holds (no progress before August), the landscape for US-compliant USDT cards will most likely remain unchanged through the end of Q3.
Historical parallel: this is not the first time “big banks said no”
Placing this in a timeline makes it clearer.
During the push for the 2024 GENIUS Act (the Stablecoin Act), there was also pressure from traditional banking lobbying groups demanding stricter issuer qualification requirements, and the legislative pace was repeatedly drawn out as a result. Going further back, the brief 2023 USDC depeg tied to the Silicon Valley Bank incident exposed exactly the kind of structural fragility — stablecoin reserves tied to the traditional banking system — that matters most to bank executives like Dimon in regulatory negotiations.
What’s similar: each round is a negotiation between traditional banks and crypto-native issuers over who regulates reserves and who can issue cards, and legislation stalls and restarts accordingly.
What’s different: this time Dimon directly and publicly named and opposed an already-formed bill, rather than making a vague statement. This puts the disagreement squarely on the table, and also means negotiations over a compromise version will take longer — raising the patience cost for users waiting on a “US-compliant USDT card.”
Regulation and compliance: where the boundaries stand now
Three distinct states need to be separated:
- Clearly permitted: In jurisdictions that already have stablecoin licensing frameworks, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, the compliance path is relatively clear. See our Singapore compliance guide and Hong Kong compliance guide for the boundaries around licensed issuers.
- Legal gray zone: The US currently falls into this category. Without an enacted market structure law, stablecoin card products are neither explicitly prohibited nor explicitly granted federal compliance status. CLARITY’s stall means the gray zone continues.
- Clearly tightening: The EU already has clear rules for stablecoin issuance under MiCAR, with stronger constraints — see our EU compliance guide.
For Asia-Pacific users, the more relevant reference point isn’t legislative progress in Washington, but the local rules of your own jurisdiction. This is also why we continue to maintain pages like our Japan compliance guide separately — the compliance risk of the card in your hand depends on where you reside and where your funds come from, not on what Dimon said on Fox Business.
Milestones worth watching next
- Senate agenda ranking — whether CLARITY enters substantive review before the August recess is the first signal to watch.
- Whether a “compromise” draft emerges — if bank lobbying pushes for a rewrite of issuer provisions, the qualification threshold for stablecoin issuance in the new version will be key.
- Coordination between the GENIUS Act and CLARITY — if the stablecoin bill and the market structure bill are advanced separately, their timelines could diverge further.
- Public statements from major issuers — no mainstream Asia-Pacific issuer has commented on this so far; any adjustment to US-route strategy by any of them is worth watching.
Editorial recommendations
- Users holding Asia-Pacific-route cards (MPCard Asia Elite, Bybit Card, RedotPay, etc.): no action needed. This news does not change your card’s fees, limits, or availability.
- Users waiting for a “US-compliant USDT card”: we recommend continuing to wait, but lowering expectations — based on TD Cowen’s assessment, the likelihood of a clearly compliant product appearing before August is low, so there’s no need to keep adjusting plans over short-term legislative news.
- Users planning to apply for a new USDT card: base your decision on verifiable factors like the issuer’s actual fees and the consistency of Asia-Pacific account/IP/BIN. If you’re unsure which card to choose, check our 2026 Top 5 recommendations for a side-by-side comparison.
In short: the tug-of-war over US legislation is a long-term variable, but your card experience this month is determined by issuer policy and your own jurisdiction — not by one TV appearance from Dimon.