Well, that didn’t last long. Just one day after JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon declared he was “not going to talk about bitcoin anymore,” the vocal bitcoin critic broke his silence to go on another memorable rant about the flagship cryptocurrency.
As reported by CNBC, Dimon unleashed a diatribe against bitcoin in response to a moderator question at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance on Friday, reiterating that he believes blockchain technology is useful but that non-fiat cryptocurrency “has no value”:
“I could care less about bitcoin. I don’t know why I said anything about it,” Dimon stated. “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.”
This Wall Street banker, who has threatened to fire any employee who traded bitcoin, railed against the practice, saying that the bitcoin price was being manipulated by speculators and he didn’t care if institutional investment firms such as Goldman Sachs are considering opening dedicated cryptocurrency trading operations.
He added that anyone “stupid enough to buy [bitcoin] will pay the price for it one day”:
“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”. It can “trade at $100,000,” but it will eventually crash to zero. “Governments are going to crush it,” he opined.
He concluded by retorting — for the fifth time in this statement alone — that he does not care about bitcoin, although the tone of his response gives one the impression that the truth is quite to the contrary:
“This is the last time I’m ever going to answer any questions about bitcoin, because I really don’t care.”
Sure, Jamie, whatever you say.