JPMorgan Boss: Bitcoin Is Worthless!

Jamie Dimon, CEO of the world's largest investment bank JPMorgan Chase, has publicly revealed that he is not a fan of bitcoin, the crypto asset with the largest market capitalization today.

"I personally think that bitcoin is worthless," Dimon said at an Institute of International Finance event on Monday, quoted by CNBC Pro, Tuesday (12/10/2021).

But, "I don't want to be a spokesperson (for people who are against bitcoin/crypto assets) - I don't care. Bitcoin doesn't mean anything to me," he said.

"Our clients are adults. They don't agree. That's what makes the market. So if they want to have access to buy bitcoins themselves, we can't hold them back but we can give them legitimate access, as cleanly as possible."

He stands by that statement. However, in February 2019, JPMorgan accommodated the wishes of some customers and it was mentioned that it would launch a digital currency called JPM Coin, and in October 2020, the company created a new unit for blockchain projects .

In August, the company he captains began giving its wealth management clients access to crypto funds, according to a CNBC report.

Even though crypto assets have experienced turbulence and ups and downs in the asset class market in recent times, Dimon remains steadfast in his anti-crypto views.

Recently, he told the CEO and journalist of news portal Axios, Jim VandeHei, that bitcoin "has no intrinsic value."

Although he thinks bitcoin will be around in the long term, Dimon said "always believed bitcoin would be illegal in certain areas, like China has made it illegal, so I think it's like fool's gold ."

In other words to him bitcoin is something that looks more promising than it really is, like miners are tricked into thinking of pyrite - a golden copper sulfide mineral - as gold.

Dimon also told VandeHei that he thinks "the regulator will regulate bitcoin."

Dimon could be right, recently, the US government has been increasingly focused on regulating the cryptocurrency market .

On Friday (8/10), Bloomberg reported that the Joe Biden administration is considering an executive order that would direct federal agencies to study and offer recommendations on the crypto market.

However, even though increased regulation is possible, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell clarified in late September that he has no intention of banning bitcoin in the US.

Some financial experts argue that well-thought-out regulation would be beneficial in the US.

“If people want crypto to become more than a mainstream asset, then I think [regulation is] the necessary first step,” Anjali Jariwala, a financial planner and certified public accountant founder of Fit Advisors, told CNBC Make It.

However, cryptocurrency proponents remain wary of further regulation – they worry that certain regulatory frameworks could hinder crypto innovation in the US and push businesses overseas.

As of Tuesday (12/8) at 16.16 WIB, Bitcoin was traded at a price of US$ 57,333 or equivalent to Rp. 819.86 million (exchange rate of Rp. 14,300/US$), based on data compiled from CoinMarketCap, with a market capitalization of US$ 1, 08 trillion (Rp 15,444 trillion).