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

New Zealand’s central bank is considering a digital currency with hopes that it could be used as a monetary policy tool

As the use of hard cash continues to decline across the country, the bank is turning to the public to voice their opinions on digital coins.

The Reserve Bank says “the declining use, acceptance and availability of cash in New Zealand, and emerging innovations in private money” are prompting the notion.

Stablecoins are a trype of cryptocurrency that are tied to a traditional currency, in this case almost certainly the fiat New Zealand Dollar. 

As the name suggests, this makes their value relatively stable.

Beneficially too, Stablecoins also less likely to be able to be impacted by famous people’s public comments.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocoin, went from being worth US$52,700 to $40,500 in just 16 days earlier this month.

The digital currency could help to support the New Zealand dollar while being interchangeable with cash.

This would help the bank remain relevant in the future and improve cross-border payment efficiency and resilience.

Cryptocurrency markets continue to be heavily affected by China’s ban on crypto-asset trading inside the country

All eyes are firmly fixed on China at the moment.

China’s central bank injected liquidity into the financial system for a ninth day in the longest run since December.

Meanwhile, crypto continues to crumble

Bitcoin is currently worth just over $41 thousand US dollars, a major drop from its September peak of over $52 thousand

Analysts warn that with debt fears looming, and Tether could also be affected.