The head of JPMorgan & Chase Co. Jamie Dimon compared cryptocurrency tokens to "pet pebbles" and called them "a terrible diversion."
JPMorgan CEO fudding crypto like it's 2014 again. 🤦 pic.twitter.com/ZnEUz0D33j
— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDailyio) December 7, 2022
Regarding the market caps for Bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies, Dimon said that the former's monetary value was typical of the entire sector.
"Therefore, Bitcoin is currently valued less than a trillion dollars, albeit we're not sure if that represents a real market."
Dimon went to the alleged prevalence of illegal conduct inside the sector, including cybercrime, exchange tokens, and tax avoidance, to bolster his position.
"Why do we allow this to happen when there is 20 to 30 billion ransomware, 20 to 30 billion exchange coins, and a lot of AML, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and sex trafficking?”
He then urged regulators to concentrate their efforts on the cryptocurrency sector rather than the banks.
JPMorgan has a Cryptocurrency Wager?
In 2017, Dimon gave the impression that he had changed his mind about cryptocurrencies by admitting that many of JPMorgan's clients were interested in investing in the field.
"They do not concur with me. That is how markets are created. Therefore, if they want access to acquire bitcoin for themselves, we can't hold it, but we can get them legal access that is as clean as possible."
By completing its first international transaction on Polygon in November, JPMorgan made its support for the cryptocurrency industry known.
The transfer was a part of a Monetary Authority of Singapore pilot initiative that comprised DBS Bank and SBI Digital Asset Holdings to look at potential DeFi use cases in the wholesale finance markets.
It was generally acknowledged that the action showed traditional finance adopting the idea of using decentralized finance as a tool to modernize international trade in financial instruments.
Looking back at Dimon's most recent CNBC comments, however, it seems that the pilot program was approved more reluctantly than with a firm belief in the benefits of cryptocurrencies.
