Banks vs. crypto: Who gets to rewrite the rules of money

• It's old money against new code, a battle that hints at critical questions ahead: which group has more power in Washington, and which will own the future of finance.

What to watch: The White House is caught between the two worlds and trying to play mediator.

• President Trump has labeled himself the "crypto president," at a time when the industry has an ever-growing war chest it plans to put to use in the upcoming midterm elections.
• He has picked fights with Wall Street — including proposing a credit card interest rate cap — though his administration has also pushed for further deregulation favored by the banks.

Driving the news: Trump officials summoned representatives from each side to the White House on Monday for a meeting, Reuters first reported.

• The goal is to find a path ahead on the rewards issue that has stalled key congressional legislation, the Clarity Act.
• Expected at the meeting, Axios has learned: bank and crypto lobbying groups, along with executives from crypto industry firms, including Coinbase and Circle. Individual banks are not expected to send any reps.

Zoom in: The standoff centers on whether — and how — crypto platforms can offer customers rewards for holding stablecoins.

• Digital asset firms argue they should be allowed to pass along rewards generated by stablecoin reserves to customers.
• The banking industry says those rewards would unfairly compete with interest-bearing bank accounts and could open a slippery slope toward cannibalizing deposits — a result it warns could have huge impacts on traditional lending.

Between the lines: If crypto firms want to offer bank-like products, the banking industry argues, they should be regulated like banks — with the same capital requirements, supervision and consumer protections.

The other side: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been among the most vocal on the crypto side in this fight, withdrawing his firm's support of the legislation with a single tweet last month — prompting the postponement of a key Senate committee vote.

• A source familiar with the matter compared the battle with the banks to sparring with ghosts, with no clear understanding of what the banks are really concerned about.

The intrigue: After years of mutual hostility, Wall Street's gradual embrace of digital assets had evolved into something of a bromance built around custody, trading, tokenization and ETFs.

• Today's standoff is now less about crypto itself and more about the industry's most powerful platforms threatening new competition.
• That tension was reportedly on full display last month in Davos, where Armstrong was said to have gotten the cold shoulder from the Wall Street establishment, the WSJ reported.
• The paper says JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Armstrong he was "full of sh*t."

What they're saying: "It is really easy to cover a K street car wreck and this looks like exactly that: lobbying forces coming to duke it out in the halls of Congress," a source said.

• But often forgotten is how closely the industries still work together: Crypto exchanges are banked by, or partner with, some of the Wall Street giants that they are fighting with on this issue.

The bottom line: The way this fight is resolved could show how much the crypto industry is tipping the scales in Washington.