Jamie Dimon sounds off on cryptocurrencies. Again

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has taken another swipe at cryptocurrencies, while emphasising that the FI is interested in blockchain technology. Speaking with the Harvard Business Review, Dimon attempted to sidestep the issue, although he ultimately couldn’t resist a dig at Bitcoin et al.

“I probably shouldn’t say any more about cryptocurrency. But it’s not the same as gold or fiat currencies,” he commented. “Those are supported by law, police, courts. They’re not replicable and there are strictures on them. Blockchain, on the other hand, is real. We’re testing it and will use it for a whole lot of things.”

Bitcoin bashing

Dimon is always good value for money when discussing the crypto landscape and Bitcoin in particular. Here are some of his previous comments…

“Blockchain is a technology which is a good technology. We actually use it. It will be useful in a lot of different things. God bless the blockchain. Cryptocurrencies, digital currencies, I think are also fine. JPMorgan moves $6 trillion around the world every day, and we don’t do it in cash, it’s done digitally. If it can be done digitally with the blockchain, so be it. But it will still be a dollar cryptocurrency.

What I have an issue with is a non-fiat cryptocurrency. So crypto sterling, euro, yen, they are all fine. I don’t personally understand the value of something that has no actual value. You all can do whatever you want and I don’t care. I could care less what Bitcoin trades for, how it trades, why it trades, who trades it. If you’re stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day. I’ve also told people that it can trade at $100,000 before it trades to zero. Tulip bulbs traded for $75,000 or something like that.

The only value of Bitcoin is what the other guy’ll pay for it. Honestly I think there’s a good chance a lot of the buyers out there are out there jazzing it up every day so that maybe you’ll buy it too, and take them out. I quite mean that by the way. People are very good at manipulating the press these days and getting news out. Every day, you have CNBC, nonstop Bitcoin. Who cares about Bitcoin? The world economy’s so big, JPMorgan alone, $6 trillion, we move all this money, and Bitcoin in total, all these currencies, $50 billion dollars, maybe a billion dollars trades a day.

The other thing I’ve always said about Bitcoin, governments – and this is not a technological statement – governments are going to crush it one day. Governments like to know where the money is, who has it and what you’re doing with it, in case you haven’t noticed. Right?

And governments like to control their currency, like to control their own economy. So China’s already put curbs on it. Japan, they say Japan accepted Bitcoin. No they didn’t. What I gather Japan did was they call it J-coin. It’s a yen cryptocurrency. It’s not a non-fiat (digital currency).

People have said legitimately OK, it’s close to gold. Not really. Gold is limited, it’s been around for a long time. People also say Bitcoin is close to a fiat currency. Not really. A fiat currency is when a government says this is your legal tender, you have to give it and accept it.

And a central bank — of course they can misuse it. The central bank can also inflate it. So there is a use case for Bitcoin. If you live in Venezuela, North Korea, if you’re a criminal, great product. I mean that. It’s better than cash or deposits in that country. Cuba.

But this is the last time I’m ever going to answer questions about Bitcoin because I really don’t care. When I made that ‘stupid statement’ (calling Bitcoin a fraud), my daughter sent me an email saying, ‘Dad, I own two Bitcoins.’ My formerly smart daughter.”