JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon testifies throughout a Wall Street oversight listening to by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 6, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon lashed out at bitcoin and its friends, suggesting in remarks Wednesday on Capitol Hill that cryptocurrencies ought to be banned.
“I’ve all the time been deeply against crypto, bitcoin, et cetera,” the head of the largest U.S. financial institution by property mentioned below questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) throughout a Senate Banking Committee listening to. “The solely true use-case for it is criminals, drug traffickers … cash laundering, tax avoidance.”
“If I was the authorities, I’d close it down,” he added.
The remarks are the newest broadside from Dimon against cryptocurrencies, although his financial institution is closely concerned in blockchain, the enabling expertise for the $1.6 trillion business.
In earlier statements, Dimon has referred to as bitcoin “a hyped-up fraud,” a remark he later walked again. He had additionally likened it to a “pet rock.”
Under additional questioning from Warren, Dimon and a number of other different CEOs of enormous banks introduced earlier than the committee as a part of a routine listening to on the business, agreed that crypto corporations ought to face the identical anti-money laundering laws as the main monetary establishments.