Global investment bank JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said bitcoin has no intrinsic value and “regulators are going to regulate the hell out of it.” He emphasized: “If people are using it for tax avoidance and sex trafficking and ransomware, it’s going to be regulated, whether you like it or not.”
JPMorgan boss on Bitcoin and Crypto regulation
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon continued to voice his anti-bitcoin and crypto stance in an interview with Axios on HBO, posted Monday.
Dimon was asked whether bitcoin is “the fool’s gold of the future?” The JPMorgan boss replied:
It has no intrinsic value, and the regulators will regulate it thoroughly.
While admitting that the cryptocurrency will be around long term, Dimon said: “I’ve always believed it’ll be made illegal someplace, like China made it illegal, so I think it’s a little bit of fool’s gold.”
Several regulators have also said bitcoin has no intrinsic value, including European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. In comparison, many have also pointed out that fiat currencies also have no intrinsic value. A report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis states: “State monopoly currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the Swiss franc, have no intrinsic value either.”
Dimon was further asked if governments should regulate bitcoin. “Yes,” he exclaimed, adding, “They have to do it. You can’t regulate everything a bank does in terms of moving money and not regulate what you would call money.” The JPMorgan executive elaborated:
You can call it a security or an asset or something like that, but if people are using it for tax evasion, sex trafficking, and ransomware, it’s going to be regulated whether you like it or not. So it’s not a moral statement. It’s a factual statement.
Dimon has long been a bitcoin and crypto skeptic. He called BTC a fraud back in September 2017 but later regretted making the statement. In May, he advised people to “stay away” from cryptocurrency.
While stating that he doesn’t care about bitcoin himself, Dimon admitted that JPMorgan clients are interested. In July, the bank said that lots of its clients saw cryptocurrency as an asset class and they wanted to invest in it. By August, JPMorgan was offering six cryptocurrency investment funds to clients.
