JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon gestures as he speaks for the duration of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on Wall Road firms, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 6, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon lashed out at bitcoin and its peers, suggesting in remarks Wednesday on Capitol Hill that cryptocurrencies ought to be banned.
“I’ve constantly been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, et cetera,” the head of the greatest U.S. lender by property stated beneath questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) through a Senate Banking Committee hearing. “The only legitimate use-case for it is criminals, drug traffickers … income laundering, tax avoidance.”
“If I was the govt, I would shut it down,” he included.
The remarks are the latest broadside from Dimon towards cryptocurrencies, while his financial institution is heavily involved in blockchain, the enabling engineering for the $1.6 trillion market.
In previous statements, Dimon has known as bitcoin “a hyped-up fraud,” a comment he afterwards walked back again. He experienced also likened it to a “pet rock.”
Less than even more questioning from Warren, Dimon and quite a few other CEOs of substantial financial institutions brought before the committee as element of a program hearing on the field, agreed that crypto providers should experience the very same anti-money laundering laws as the big money establishments.
The matter marked a scarce notice of unity involving the banking leaders and Warren, usually a severe critic of the marketplace.
“When it comes to banking policy, I am not normally holding palms with the CEOs of multi-billion dollar financial institutions, but this is a make a difference of nationwide safety. Terrorists, drug traffickers and rogue nations ought to be barred from working with crypto for their perilous routines. It is time for Congress to act,” Warren stated.