Jamie Dimon – the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase – has stated in a recent interview that he doesn’t care much for bitcoin, going so far as to call it “worthless.”
Jamie Dimon Has a Negative BTC Attitude
In the interview, he comments that he doesn’t think much of BTC, though his company is willing to offer bitcoin options given that there is an audience for them. He doesn’t want to serve as a regulator of any kind. Thus, he is not willing to simply push bitcoin to the side given how many people want to get their hands on it, though he doesn’t see much value to the asset from a personal sense.
In the interview, he states:
I personally think that bitcoin is worthless, [but] I don’t want to be a spokesperson — I don’t care. It makes no difference to me. Our clients are adults. They disagree. That’s what makes markets. So, if they want to have access to buy yourself bitcoin, we can’t custody it, but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible, access.
In addition, he is also confident that many other countries will follow in China’s footsteps and make crypto use illegal. Not long ago, China announced that it was removing all digital currency miners from its turf. This was immediately followed by a ban on all crypto transactions and related activities, and thus digital currencies have become fully outlawed in the country.
He says that other nations will take a similar route, and those that don’t will seek to “regulate the hell out of” cryptocurrencies. He says:
I’ve always believed it’ll be made illegal someplace, like China made it illegal, so I think it’s a little bit of fool’s gold.
Dimon also has a lot of skepticism regarding bitcoin’s alleged cap of 21 million coins. One of the big benefits to bitcoin is that it cannot be consistently printed like fiat currencies. Bitcoin is a finite currency, and thus its value is considered more “locked” than with other assets. Dimon took issue with this in his interview and said:
How do you know it ends at 21 million [bitcoins]? You all read algorithms? You guys all believe that? I don’t know. I’ve always been a skeptic of stuff like that.
Some People Come to Bitcoin’s Rescue
Naturally, many bitcoin fans came to the asset’s rescue and bashed Dimon’s words, claiming that they were ignorant or incorrect in some way. One of these aides was Mike Novogratz, a well-known bitcoin bull and former hedge fund manager. Novogratz said of Dimon’s anti-crypto attitude:
So strange. For a man who has done a brilliant job running a giant bank, his answers around $BTC are sophomoric, and he keeps doubling down on them. I pray I stay open minded my whole life.
At press time, bitcoin is trading for just shy of $57,000.
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