(ANTIMEDIA) New York, NY — Long-time cryptocurrency critic and CEO of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon slammed Bitcoin earlier this week, claiming the digital currency is “a fraud.” He later threatened to fire any JP Morgan traders caught trading in Bitcoin. “I’d fire them in a second. For two reasons: It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous,” Dimon said at the Barclay’s Tuesday, spurring a wave of backlash from critics on social media.
Charlie Shrem, founder of BitcoinFoundation.org, pointed out the CEO’s hypocrisy in a tweet that read “Jamie Dimon has had an internal ‘Blockchain Working Group’ for over 2 years at JPMorgan & my friend is on it. Basically, he’s full of shit.” Additionally, Blockchain Capital Founder Bart Stephens noted the irony of Dimon bashing Bitcoin on the same day the company held a conference on blockchain technology. Add to the fact that JP Morgan Chase has tried to patent an alternative to Bitcoin and been rejected 175 times, and Dimon’s consistent attacks on the cryptocurrency seem to make a lot more sense.
Dimon, who formerly served on the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, also took a shot at his daughter for investing in the digital currency. “I’m not saying ‘go short Bitcoin and sell $100,000 of Bitcoin before it goes down,” he said. “This is not advice of what to do. My daughter bought Bitcoin, it went up and now she thinks she’s a genius.”
This has led some to speculate that the Wall Street tycoon is intentionally trying to drive down the price of Bitcoin. Whether that’s true or not, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Dimon’s past warnings against the cryptocurrency were typically followed by a significant spike in value.
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