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U mad bro? JPMorgan chief executive and bitcoin skeptic Jamie Dimon still doesn't like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies even though his bank is joining other Wall Street giants in offering crypto services. He yesterday successfully trolled the touchy bitcoin and crypto community, who, as always, overreacted to his comments. You can watch here.
Age before wisdom: Dimon, one of Wall Street's longest-serving executives, doubled-down on widely-reported comments from 2017, saying that he personally thinks bitcoin is "worthless"—adding: "I don't think you should smoke cigarettes either." Dimon famously called bitcoin a "fraud" in September 2017, just months ahead of bitcoin's rally to around $20,000 that thrust cryptocurrencies into the global limelight. More recently, Dimon told Axios that bitcoin has "no intrinsic value." "Our clients are adults, they disagree, that’s what makes markets, so if they want to have access to buy yourself bitcoin, we can’t custody it but we can give them legitimate, as-clean-as-possible, access," Dimon said yesterday, speaking at the Institute of International Finance annual conference.
Mysteries abound: "How do you know it ends at 21 million [bitcoins]? You all read the algorithms?" Dimon asked. "You guys all believe that? I don't know, I've always been a skeptic of stuff like that."
G-man: "No matter what anyone thinks about it, government is going to regulate it," Dimon predicted. "They are going to regulate it for [anti-money laundering] purposes, for [Bank Secrecy Act] purposes, for tax. No matter what anyone in the room thinks, nor what any libertarian thinks, nor what anyone thinks about it, government’s going to regulate it." Last week, Bloomberg reported the Biden administration is weighing an executive order that would see a raft of new rules related to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Others, including the billionaire founder of the world’s largest hedge fund and legendary investor Ray Dalio, have repeatedly warned governments will seek to ban bitcoin and crypto if the assets continue to grow and ultimately threaten the financial status quo—as has happened in China.
But but but: Dimon did give some credit to the underlying technology, blockchain, and the financial innovations it has already helped create. "Blockchain can be real, stablecoins can be real,” Dimon said at the virtual event.
Who got trolled? Everyone who's anyone in the bitcoin and crypto space. Here are some of the best: "I personally think that Jaime [sic] Dimon is worth more to bitcoin," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey ... "If you shorted bitcoin when Dimon called it a fraud in Sept 2017, you'd be down 1,274%," tweeted Zerohedge .... "For a man who has done a brilliant job running a giant bank, his answers around $BTC are sophomoric and he keeps doubling down on them," said billionaire Mike Novogratz. "I pray I stay open-minded my whole life."
Coming up: Today, Fed vice chair Richard Clarida is among the speakers at the Institute of International Finance.
Good to know: Top Facebook digital currency engineers depart to join Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund
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