Crypto community members dismissed JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s ramblings on media outlet CNBC and speculated on the motivations behind the executive’s constant flurry of negative statements toward Bitcoin (BTC).
On Jan. 17, Dimon went on CNBC and repeated many widely debunked criticisms of Bitcoin, including the possibility of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, returning to the community to “erase” BTC from existence. The executive also argued that Bitcoin “does nothing” and laid out criminal use cases for the asset.
"There are cryptocurrencies that do something, that might have value. And then there's one that does nothing, I call it pet rock. The #Bitcoin, or something like that," says @JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. "It has some use cases. Everything else is people trading among themselves." pic.twitter.com/EnUBuIEHkI
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) January 17, 2024
With Dimon constantly flinging dirt toward crypto, community members think this might be an attempt to drive down the price. On Reddit, one user speculated that this may be a calculated move. The Redditor said that many old investors listen to Dimon. The community member believes that the negativity directed toward BTC might be an attempt to lower the price as he stacks sats himself.
Meanwhile, some think Dimon is uninformed about Bitcoin, while others believe the executive is simply scooping up Bitcoin in preparation for the upcoming halving. Many believe that the halving event will drive the asset’s price upward.
While Dimon’s notion that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could come back and “erase” Bitcoin may be flawed due to its inherent characteristics, a community member brought up the possibility of Nakamoto selling his Bitcoin stash. Despite being another hypothetical, one Redditor believes this is a more feasible theory than what Dimon suggested.
Related: Spot Bitcoin ETF approval recap: A 10-year journey concludes in historic win for crypto
While Dimon continues his tirade against crypto, the company he leads is involved with the recently approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. On Dec. 29, asset manager BlackRock named JPMorgan Securities as one of its authorized participants for their ETF. The CEO received criticism for his anti-crypto comments after JPMorgan was named in BlackRock’s ETF filing.
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