JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon: ‘I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Monday said he thinks Bitcoin is “worthless.”

“I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless,” Dimon said during a conference for the Institute of International Finance, CNBC reported. 

“But I don’t want to be a spokesperson, I don’t care. It makes no difference to me. I don’t think you should smoke cigarettes either,” he added.

The bank executive’s opposition to bitcoin is not new. In September 2017 he said the cryptocurrency was a “fraud,” adding that he thought it was “stupid” and “far too dangerous.”

“The currency isn’t going to work,” he said.

In January 2018 he said he regretted making those remarks but added that he was “not interested that much in the subject at all.”

Dimon’s comments come after JPMorgan Chase this summer rolled out a new feature that gave financial advisers access to a new Bitcoin fund for private bank clients, according to Reuters.

On Monday, he said the bank is providing its clients with “legitimate, as clean as possible access” to the cryptocurrency.

“Our clients are adults, they disagree. That’s what makes markets. So if they want to have access to buy yourself Bitcoin, we can’t custody it, but we could give them legitimate, as clean as possible access,” Dimon said.

The chief executive on Monday also said he believes cryptocurrencies will ultimately be subject to government regulation.

“No matter what anyone thinks about it, government is going to regulate it. They are going to regulate it for [anti-money laundering] purposes, for [Bank Secrecy Act] purposes, for tax,” Dimon said, according to Reuters.