JPMorgan Chase
Dimon was then asked, in his testimony to the United States House Financial Services Committee, to provide his ideas on bitcoin and other digital assets. "My own personal advice to people is stay away from it. That does not mean the clients don't want it," said Dimon. "This goes back to how you have to run a business. I don't smoke marijuana but if you make it nationally legal, I'm not going to stop our people from banking it."
Dimon also stated that his own point of view does not reflect on the financial services that J.P. Morgan Chase gives to their clients. J.P. Morgan Chase and their competitors, however, are moving toward the direction of cryptocurrency; as CoinDesk has accounted, the bank is getting ready to offer a bitcoin fund to private wealth clients.
"A lot of our clients are asking, 'Can we help them buy or sell cryptocurrency?'" said Dimon at J.P. Morgan Chase's annual shareholder meeting on May 18. "And we're investing in that as we speak." J.P. Morgan has also come up with ways of showing these transactions on statements, according to the bank's chief. He reinforced his view, however, that cryptocurrency is nothing compared to conventional assets, and also brings forth much more risk.
"It's nothing like a fiat currency, it's nothing like gold," said Dimon. "Buyer beware." In addition, the executive complained about the lack of rules in the cryptocurrency space, which he explained as being a "serious emerging issue" in his latest shareholder letter.
Though J.P. Morgan Chase will not cease their usage of bitcoin, CEO Jamie Dimon nevertheless shares strong opinions regarding his blatant disapproval of this type of financial service. He may coin the cryptocurrency as "fraudulent" and "dangerous," but given the high amount of people who are trading and becoming successful at using bitcoin, his Dimon's point of view is to be highly questioned.
