JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon returned to his most critical comments about Bitcoin (BTC), calling the leading cryptocurrency in the market a “scam” and saying he had no “interest” in it, as Bloomberg reported yesterday, August 5th. Dimon was speaking at the Aspen Institute’s 25th Annual Summer Celebration Gala on Saturday, including cryptocurrencies as part of his general remarks on the US economic outlook.
His words were soon repeated in the mainstream press and online by prominent economic sources, notably Nouriel Roubini, who has also become known this year for his critical stance on Bitcoin (BTC).
According to Bloomberg, Dimon also “suggested that governments may move to shut down the crypto coins, due to the inability to control them.”
The story of the JPMorgan CEO with cryptocurrencies has been a checkered one
Having caused a stir in September 2017 when he initially called Bitcoin (BTC) a “fraud,” Jamie Dimon seemed to change his tact from then on, and then said he “regretted” the choice of his words.
“I wouldn’t put this in the category of important things in the world. But I’m not going to talk about Bitcoin (BTC) anymore,” he told reporters in October 2017.
In January, Dimon kept his promise and reported for the Cointelegraph crypto news portal that he “cannot respond” when asked how he felt about moving markets his previous comments triggered. However, he added that he is not “skeptical” about cryptos.
JPMorgan has mixed sentiments regarding Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies
In his recent interview published in the July-August issue of the Harvard Business Review, Jamie Dimon again refused to comment directly on crypto. “I probably shouldn’t say more about cryptocurrencies,” he said.
In the same interview, Dimon also commented calling blockchain technology “real,” while implying that crypto is not, saying that JPMorgan is “testing blockchain technology and will use it for a lot of things.”
Since then, mixed signals have emerged from other JPMorgan sources, including company’s Daniel Pinto who told CNBC in May that cryptocurrency “is real but not in its current form.”
