Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, says he doesn’t particularly like cryptocurrencies, but he will defend your right to invest in them. However, he sees advantages in some aspects of digital currency.
Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan on cryptocurrencies and digital currency
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon spoke about cryptocurrencies in an interview with KMTV 3 News Now in Omaha on Friday before Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting this weekend.
Commenting on cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, the head of JPMorgan said:
I always say I don’t like it very much. I defend your right to do it. I would say be very, very careful how much money you put into it.
However, Dimon sees advantages in some aspects of cryptocurrencies, such as their technology, while acknowledging that the banking industry has its inefficiencies. The executive believes:
Not all of it is bad. If you say to me, “I want to send $200 to a friend in another country,” it might take you two weeks and cost $40. You can do it with digital currency, and it takes you seconds.
“So it will work out. I think over time it will be accepted by a lot of players, including banks,” he concluded. However, he did not specify whether he was referring to cryptocurrencies, stabelcoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or his own JPM Coin.
JPMorgan Chase has its own digital currency called JPM Coin. Dimon previously described, “We use a blockchain network called Liink so banks can exchange complex information, and we also use blockchain to move tokenized deposits in U.S. dollars using JPM Coin.” JPM Coin’s website states that the coin “facilitates the real-time movement of value, helping to solve common problems of traditional cross-border payments.”
Daimon has long been a skeptic about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Last November, he warned people to be careful about investing in cryptocurrencies, citing that they have no intrinsic value. In October, he said bitcoin was worthless and questioned its limited supply.
Meanwhile, in his April letter to shareholders, he said decentralized finance (defi) and blockchain are real. In addition, JPMorgan now offers a number of crypto-investment products.
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