'Decentralized Ponzi Schemes': Chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon, criticize crypto tokens

The JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon didn’t crumble words when he was testifying before United States lawmakers after they mentioned the executive’s history of criticizing cryptocurrencies. 

On Wednesday, at an oversight hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee, Dimon was asked 'what keeps him from being more active in the crypto space.' To which he said “I’m a major skeptic on crypto tokens, which you call currency, like Bitcoin,” he continued, "They are decentralized Ponzi schemes.” 

Dimon said he believes that there is no issue with stablecoins, but only those which are properly regulated and similar to what money market funds are subject to when asked about his thoughts about the draft U.S. stablecoin Bill. Dimon added, "Stablecoins -- digital assets tied to the value of the US dollar or other currencies -- wouldn’t be problematic with the proper regulation, and JPMorgan is active in the blockchain." 

The above comments are nothing if not the "latest criticism against digital currencies" by Dimon, who once also called Bitcoin “a fraud” before eventually saying he regretted the comments. 

Nevertheless, despite Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon's harsh views on the Cryptocurrency space, 'JPMorgan has been pushing into the blockchain technology space'. Not just this but in October 2020, the financial giant also launched its own in-house stablecoin, called JPM coin, the first cryptocurrency backed by a U.S bank, whose main goal was to increase settlement efficiency. 

Another interesting fact is following the opening of its virtual lounge in the blockchain-based world Decentraland in February, JPMorgan also became the first major bank in the Metaverse. This was in a report that was released by the firm which claimed Metaverse as a “$1 trillion opportunity.”

At present, JP Morgan is hiring new staff “to push into blockchain and crypto space”, the firm announced on September 9 that it has “hired former Microsoft executive Tahreem Kamptom to be its senior payments executive. It is believed that Kamptom is going to help JP Morgan “explore blockchain tech” as his Linkedin bio shows that the former Microsoft executive has worked with crypto-related payments methods.