Jamie Dimon: “The Blockchain is Real”

Jamie Dimon has told Fox Business that he regrets calling Bitcoin a fraud, according to the media outlet’s website.

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It was back in September when Dimon made the infamous comment at an investor conference in New York. He said that if a JPMorgan trader were to trade in Bitcoin: “I’d fire them in a second. For two reasons: It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.” He did add though that his daughter had purchased some.

He also said: “If you were in Venezuela or Ecuador or North Korea or a bunch of parts like that, or if you were a drug dealer, a murderer, stuff like that, you are better off doing it in bitcoin than U.S. dollars. So there may be a market for that, but it’d be a limited market.”

Dimon is chairman, CEO and president of JPMorgan Chase, the largest American banks. He was included in Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011.

At that time of the comments, the price of Bitcoin was approaching $5000 from under $1000 at the beginning of the year. His comments caused the price to tank briefly:

Jamie Dimon said he would fire any employee trading bitcoin for being “stupid” https://t.co/Lbz632oaDP pic.twitter.com/CaemtqEa8p

— Bloomberg (@business) September 12, 2017

Bitcoin is now worth just under $15,000, and Dimon has changed his tune. Speaking to FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo, he said: “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that. ICO’s [sic] you have to look at individually.” However, he added at he is “not interested in the subject at all”.

In September, we reported that JPMorgan was considering getting in on some Bitcoin futures action by offering access to CME Group’s newest, and highly publicised, product. In fact, Dimon’s opinions notwithstanding, the bank was experimenting with blockchain technology via Ethereum as long ago as 2016.