Earlier this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon received harsh criticism from the cryptocurrency, bitcoin and finance communities for his baseless comments on bitcoin.
Dimon’s internal bitcoin trading ban caused even more controversy, as he threatened to fire any trader within JPMorgan that have been trading bitcoin. It has been quite evident that many traders in JPMorgan remain optimistic toward bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market. In August for instance, JP Morgan analyst Robert D. Boroujerdi wrote:
“With the total value nearly $120 billion, it’s getting harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies. There are currently over 800 cryptocurrencies out there, though just nine have a market cap in excess of $1 billion.”
Since 2015, Dimon has continuously disregarded bitcoin as a currency and a store of value, taking a different approach from other major multi-billion dollar investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and FIdelity Investments that have embraced bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum.
In previous coverages, Cryptocoinsnews explained in detail as to why bitcoin cannot be described as a bubble. Bitcoin markets are well regulated and have matured significant over the past three years. Bitcoin has a daily trading volume of over $2 billion and its price increase has been met by almost every regional bitcoin exchange market. In essence, bitcoin is not a bubble because bitcoin’s price surge has not been led by “unwarranted by the fundamentals of the asset and driven by exuberant market behavior,” as noted by Investopedia.
But, in its latest interview with CNBC, Dimon did not describe bitcoin as a bubble. He claimed that bitcoin is a “fraud” and that he would recklessly fire any trader that is involved in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market.
In response, analysts and experts outside of the cryptocurrency industry such as Alex Gurevich, former JPMorgan executive and head global macro, told Dimon:
“Jamie, you’re a great boss and the greatest of all-time (GOAT) bank CEO. You’re not a trader or tech entrepreneur. Please, STFU about trading bitcoin.”
Other experts within the bitcoin sector including Bitcoin Core Peter Todd, who were also shocked by Dimon’s baseless and illogical comments on bitcoin, criticized Dimon for his lack of knowledge in the asset class. Todd stated:
“Hey Jamie: next time you want to write something about how awful Bitcoin is, let me ghostwrite it. I can do a much better job than you.”
In his statement, Todd emphasized a comment made by Dimon which read “eventually, it [bitcoin] will be closed.” It has been evident for the past eight years that bitcoin cannot be closed or shut down by centralized entities due to its decentralized and distributed nature. Its global ecosystem of miners and node operators specifically prevent the closure of the network from occurring.
Former Facebook executive and Managing Partner at Full Tilt Capital Anthony Pompliano, also criticized Dimon for the fraudulent activities JPMorgan has been convicted of.
“The bank CEO (Jamie Dimon) who had to pay $13 billion for causing the housing crisis just called Bitcoin a fraud I’ve literally seen it all,” said Pompliano, referring to the $13 billion fine imposed by US financial regulators over fraudulent mortgages.
Many analysts and experts suggest that Dimon had made such comments on bitcoin to protect JPMorgan’s ongoing blockchain development, research and operations.