Despite Crypto Winter, Bitcoin supporters are confident that the future for the fledgling industry is bright. And until this year, they have reason to celebrate. Bitcoin price has jumped more than 25% in the last few weeks just after 2022 is gloomy. But JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon still doesn’t believe it. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Dimon attacked cryptocurrencies as a distraction.
“I think it’s all a waste of time and why you waste any breath is beyond me,” he said. CNBC. “Bitcoin itself is a self-inflicted fraud. It’s a pet rock.”
This isn’t the first time Dimon has expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies—or used the “pet rock” analogy to describe digital assets. CEOs have described Bitcoin as a “fraud” since 2017; and after the implosion of what was the world’s second largest crypto exchange, FTX late last year, he said the entire industry was a “complete exhibition.”
CNBC anchor Joe Kernen refuted Dimon’s claim that Bitcoin is a fraud on Thursday, arguing that the cryptocurrency is a “store of value” that is “irreplaceable” and “scarce,” noting the protocol shows that there are only 21 million coins. .
“It’s not true at all. How do you know it will stop at 21 million? Maybe it will reach 21 million and Satoshi’s picture will come and laugh at you all,” Dimon quipped, referencing the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto used by Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, or creator.
But while Dimon doesn’t believe in cryptocurrencies, when it comes to the blockchain technology it’s built on, he has a more positive outlook.
“That’s different,” he said Thursday. “Blockchain is a technology ledger system that is used to transfer information. We have used it to do overnight repo, intraday repo, we have used it to move money, right? So the technology ledger that we think will be distributed.
Dimon and JPMorgan have been supporting blockchain technology since 2017, when the bank was one of 86 companies that helped create an open source blockchain initiative called The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. And as Dimon mentioned above, the company uses its own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, to execute intraday repurchase agreements. But on Thursday, Dimon noted that the financial industry has been talking about using blockchain technology for 12 years and, so far, he said “little has been done.”
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