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JP Morgan CEO and longtime Bitcoin critic Jamie Dimon again came out against the number one digital currency, reiterating his stance that it is a tool for criminals and tax evasion.
“The actual use cases are sex trafficking, tax avoidance, anti-money laundering, terrorism financing,” Dimon said. “I’ve always said Bitcoin doesn’t have value.”
Despite Dimon’s long-time campaign against Bitcoin, global investment giant BlackRock named JP Morgan as an active participant in its pending ETF filing with the SEC, according to a report by Bloomberg.
During an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Dimon remained staunchly opposed to the digital asset that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is widely expected to accept as the basis of an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new financial product will give investors exposure to Bitcoin's ups and downs without directly owning the digital asset.
The JP Morgan executive, however, cautioned that the anticipated Bitcoin ETFs could flop once launched, noting in December that there was skepticism that a spot Bitcoin ETF would bring new capital to the market given low interest in similar ETFs in Canada and Europe.
“It's not people's buying and selling Bitcoin, that there's no value to your buying and selling Bitcoin,” Dimon told Bartiromo on Wednesday.
Last month, as talks about a Bitcoin ETF approval were heating up, Dimon told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that Bitcoin should be shut down after Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Dimon why criminals and terrorists like cryptocurrency.
“If I was the government, I’d close it down,” Dimon told Senator Elizabeth Warren. “I’ve always been opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etcetera.”
While Dimon continues to rail against Bitcoin as a form of payment or store of value, JP Morgan has experimented with the underlying blockchain technology, including a permissioned cryptocurrency called the JPM Coin, which the banking giant launched in 2019.
Last fall, a new payment feature was added to JPM Coin that allows companies to automate funds transfers, making it possible to quickly move funds to cover financial obligations like overdue payments and margin calls.
“The actual use cases are sex trafficking, tax avoidance, anti-money laundering, terrorism financing,” Dimon said. “It's not people's buying and selling Bitcoin, that there's no value to your buying and selling Bitcoin.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.