Here he goes again – Bitcoin is ‘hyped-up scam’ says JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, but blockchain is ‘distributable’
Despite the ongoing challenges in the cryptocurrency market, digital asset enthusiasts are convinced that the future is bright for the sector. Recently, the value of Bitcoin has shown signs of resurgence with a notable price increase in recent weeks, after a difficult start to 2023.
But not everyone shares the same positive view, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. In a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) interview with CNBC, he made harsh public statements about his perspective on Bitcoin and the crypto industry.
“I think this is all a waste of time, and why you’re wasting your breath on it is beyond me,” Dimon said in the interview on the sidelines of the WEF. Dimon. “Bitcoin itself is a hyped-up scam. It’s a pet rock.”
This is not the first time Dimon has publicly shared his skepticism about the crypto industry. In fact, he has been vocal about his views on digital assets since 2017, when he first referred to Bitcoin as a “fraud.”
After the downfall of the once second largest crypto exchange, FTXlast year he argued that the entire crypto industry is a “complete sideshow.”
In response to Jamie Dimon’s negative statements about Bitcoin, some have presented counterarguments to his claims, including CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, who challenged Dimon’s claims during the interview.
Kernen claimed that Bitcoin acts as a “store of value” and is “immutable” and “scarce”, referring to the protocol of cryptocurrency which limits the number of coins to 21 million.
In response, Dimon said, “How do you know it’s going to stop at 21 million? Well, maybe it’s going to get to 21 million and [bitcoin’s mysterious founder] Satoshi’s picture is going to come up and laugh at all of you.”
Despite these conflicting views, it’s worth noting that while Dimon may not believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies, he recognizes the value of the blockchain technology they’re built on.
During the same interview, he stated that “Blockchain is a technology ledger system that we use to move information. We’ve used it to do overnight repo, intraday repo, we’ve used it to move money, right? So it’s a technology book that we believe will be able to be distributed.”
In fact, JPMorgan has been investing in blockchain technology since 2017, when the bank participated in creating an open source blockchain initiative called The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
The company also uses its own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, to execute intraday repurchase agreements. However, Dimon also mentioned that the financial industry has discussed the use of blockchain technology for 12 years, and in his opinion, “very little has been done” in terms of implementation.
Many in the crypto community took to Twitter after the interview to criticize Dimon’s views, including popular crypto figure and podcaster Peter McCormack, who wrote in a Twitter post: “As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon calls #bitcoin a ‘hyped-up scam’ we let don’t forget that JPMorgan paid $2.6 billion for their role in the Madoff fraud, the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Bernie Madoff was able to launder billions of dollars through PMorgan.”
Others poked fun at Dimon’s lack of understanding of open source, noting that it’s pretty easy to see that no shady scenarios could play out with Bitcoin, such as more than 21 million coins being created.
“How do you know it ends at 21M?” – Well Jamie, you see it’s in the code. The code is open source completely transparent… and if you wanted to change 21M you would need consensus or it would go hard,” one Twitter user replied.
