“Fools gold”: Why JPMorgan CEO coins crypto as “worthless”

Jamie Dimon has come clean about his attitude towards bitcoin, but what does this mean for JPMorgan clients?

The CEO of JP Morgan isn’t a fan of bitcoin, comparing the trading of the cryptocurrency to his disagreement towards smoking cigarettes.

Jamie Dimon said he personally thinks that bitcoin is worthless and he doesn’t care about it, speaking out at a virtual event hosted by the Institute of International Finance.

“Our clients are adults. They disagree,” Dimon says.

“If they want to have access to buy or sell bitcoin – we can’t custody it – but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible access.”

While Dimon is skeptic of virtual currencies, his firm still agreed to roll out their digital currency JPM Coin.

This was followed by their creation of a new unit for blockchain projects in October 2020.

Additionally, in August this year, JPMorgan awarded their wealth management clients with access to crypto funds.

In conversation with Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, Dimon previously coined the cryptocurrency as “fraudulent” after concluding that the currency had “no intrinsic value”.

“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.”

Despite his cynical attitude towards bitcoin, Dimon understands not everyone may agree with his views.

As a result, the investment banking firm’s clients will continue to have access to crypto funds.

Written by Rebecca Borg