JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has again slammed crypto—today saying that he’d “close it down” if he were the U.S. government.
“The true use case for it [crypto] is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance,” Dimon told lawmakers during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Wednesday.
“If I was the government, I’d close it down,” he added. “I’ve always been opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etcetera.”
Dimon’s comments came after Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked the billionaire bank boss why “terrorists, drug traffickers and rogue nations” like crypto.
He went on to add that you can move money “almost instantaneously” with digital assets and that it was “somewhat anonymous.”
The legal and regulatory status of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is something that needs to be dealt with—and now, according to Bitcoin skeptic and JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon.
Dimon, who famously called Bitcoin a “fraud” back in 2017, made the comments in a letter to shareholders today.
“There are serious emerging issues that need to be dealt with—and rather quickly: the growth of shadow banking, the legal and regulatory status of cryptocurrencies, the proper and improper use of financial...
Dimon’s latest comments are not the first time he’s criticized Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: he famously called Bitcoin a “fraud” back in 2017, and criticized his own daughter because she bought a bit of the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap.
The chief of the world’s biggest bank also once questioned whether Bitcoin would really have its supply capped at 21 million coins, saying: “Maybe it’s gonna get to 21 million and Satoshi’s picture is gonna come up and laugh at you all.”
Despite criticizing Bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies, Dimon has praised its underlying technology and his bank has used blockchain for projects such as its JPM Coin, a digital coin that runs on a permissioned blockchain (a distributed ledger that is not publicly accessible like Ethereum or Bitcoin.)
The crypto industry’s X (formerly Twitter) users were quick to point this out—especially highlighting the amount of times JP Morgan and other banks have been fined by regulators for breaking rules.
J.P. Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon: "The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance."
The Data: Since 2000, regulators fined banks 7,400+ times totaling to fines of $380+ Billion.
remember when jpm got fined for not only failing to report madoff's suspicious transactions but using the information to protect its own investments https://t.co/ba9brJL8ropic.twitter.com/gk5EZbGWDM
Crypto advocates often push back at the notion that Bitcoin or other digital assets are disproportionately used by criminals, highlighting the fact that Bitcoin, in particular, operates on a transparent ledger and transactions can very easily be tracked.
Some government officials in the past, notably former CIA Director Michael Morell, have suggested that Bitcoin is actually a “boon” for law enforcement, considering how transparent it really is.
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Video game retailer GameStop said on Wednesday that it plans to offer up to $1.3 billion worth of convertible senior notes to investors, taking a page straight out of Strategy's Bitcoin-buying playbook.
The Texas-based firm said in a press release that proceeds from the sale will be used for "general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of Bitcoin." The announcement comes one day after GameStop said it could purchase Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset following an update to the company...
Fidelity Digital Assets is actively testing a stablecoin it has developed, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Decrypt.
The crypto-focused arm of Fidelity Investments, a $5 trillion asset manager, does not yet have plans to bring the token to market, the source said.
The Financial Times first reported on the Boston-based firm's stablecoin experiment.
The firm's testing of its own stablecoin comes as it also explores the tokenized U.S. Treasury market. A few days ago, Fidelity filed...
Cboe has submitted a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would allow the exchange to list shares of a Fidelity exchange-traded fund tracking the price of Solana.
The19b-4 form, filed Tuesday, is a major step in the SEC’s approval process, although Fidelity must still file an S-1 registration statement describing the product.
The filing comes just days after Fidelity registered a Delaware Trust entity for its Solana fund, which would be based on the performance of the six...
