JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Bitcoin is a ‘hype scam’ and crypto a ‘waste of time’ — but blockchain is a ‘deployable’ technology
even though it’s happening Crypto winterBitcoin supporters are sure that the future of this nascent industry is bright. And so far, they’ve had reason to celebrate. The price of Bitcoin has increased by more than 25% in the past few weeks after a dismal 2022. But JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is still not a believer. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Dimon criticized cryptocurrencies as a distraction.
“I think all that is a waste of time and why you guys waste any breath on it is completely beyond my scope,” he said. told CNBC. “Bitcoin itself is an exaggerated scam. It’s a pet rock.
This isn’t the first time Dimon has expressed his doubts about cryptocurrencies—or using one similar to “pet rock” to describe digital assets. The CEO described Bitcoin as a “cheat” since 2017; and then explode On what used to be the world’s second-largest crypto exchange FTX late last year, he argued that the entire industry is just a “complete sideshow”.
CNBC host Joe Kernen refuted Dimon’s claims that Bitcoin is a scam on Thursday, arguing that the cryptocurrency is an “immutable” and “scarce” store of value, noting that its protocol dictates that there will be only 21 million coins.
“Completely untrue. How do you know it will stop at 21 million? Maybe it will go up to 21 million and the image of Satoshi will come out and laugh at you all,” quipped Dimon, referring to the pseudonym. Satoshi Nakamoto was used by the creator or anonymous creator of Bitcoin.
But while Dimon doesn’t believe in cryptocurrencies, when it comes to the blockchain technology they’re built on, he has a much more positive view.
“That’s different,” he said Thursday. “Blockchain is a technological ledger system that we use to move information. We used it to do overnight repo, intraday repo, we used it to transfer money, right? So that’s the technology ledger we think we’ll be able to deploy.”
Dimon and JPMorgan have been working on blockchain technology since 2017, when the bank was one of 86 companies that helped create an open-source blockchain initiative called Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. And as Dimon mentioned above, the company uses its own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, to execute the repurchase agreement of the day. But on Thursday, Dimon noted that the financial industry has been talking about using blockchain technology for 12 years, and that up until this point, he said “very little has been done.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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