JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon, who has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin in recent years, has reiterated his sentiment and called it ‘worthless.’
Dimon, who was speaking at a virtual conference held by Institute of International Finance, also said that the cryptocurrencies will become government-regulated in the future, Reuters reported.
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“No matter what anyone thinks about it, the government is going to regulate it. They are going to regulate it for anti-money laundering purposes, for Bank Secrecy Act purposes, for tax,” he has been quoted as saying by the news agency.
In 2017, the US bank chief referred to cryptocurrencies as ‘fraud’ and said that it would ‘blow up’ eventually.
Dimon, who later said that he regretted the statement, still remains sceptical on the topic.
Moreover, Dimon’s views seems to contradict with that of the US-based bank which is looking to tap the rising demand amongst the investors for cryptocurrency offerings.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan offered its wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds.
The move allowed the bank’s financial advisers to accept, buy and sell orders from clients for five cryptocurrency products.
Dimon has been quoted as saying at the conference: “I personally think that bitcoin is worthless. I don’t think you should smoke cigarettes either.
“Our clients are adults. They disagree. 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.”
Last week, US Bancorp launched new cryptocurrency custody services for institutional investment managers with private funds in the US and Cayman Islands.
