CEO of JP Morgan: blockchain, not Bitcoin

According to JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, Bitcoin is not interesting, while blockchain technology is.

He stated publicly in an interview released the day before yesterday on CNBC in Davos. 

JP Morgan: Bitcoin, not blockchain

In fact, it has overturned the concept, very dear to bitcoiners, that it is Bitcoin itself that is interesting, and not the technology with which it is made. 

According to many bitcoiners, what is interesting is precisely the financial asset BTC, with its deflationary nature and an unmanipulable supply, while the blockchain is just a means to an end.

Instead, Jamie Dimon takes up a concept that was popular a few years ago, according to which what is interesting is the underlying technology, and not the financial asset Bitcoin.

They say that they use blockchain successfully, and that it is necessary to distinguish between useful cryptocurrencies that are used for smart contracts, and others that are useless.

According to Jamie Dimon, Bitcoin falls into this second category, meaning it serves no purpose, while, for example, following his reasoning, the failed cryptocurrency Luna, which was used to enable the use of smart contracts on the Terra blockchain, would be considered useful. 

Cryptocurrencies and tokens

Dimon cites tokenization as an interesting technology to use in the financial sector. 

However, tokenization is not based on the issuance of cryptocurrencies, but on the use of cryptocurrencies to issue tokens. 

Tokenizing an asset means creating tokens out of thin air, not a cryptocurrency. Something similar, for example, to NFTs, whose collapse in 2022 and 2023 demonstrated on what fragile foundations a similar system relies. 

What Dimon didn’t say is that you can’t create as many Bitcoins as you want, while you can create as many tokens as you want. It is precisely this that gives value to BTC, while in fact it does not allow the vast majority of tokens to have one. 

JP Morgan’s Dimon against Bitcoin

According to the CEO of JP Morgan, the only true uses of Bitcoin are as currency for illegal activities or transactions. 

However, what he didn’t say is that for this type of activity nowadays the American dollar is still enormously more used than BTC, but evidently this aspect is tolerated by some when it comes to centralized fiat currencies issued by a central bank, but not tolerated when it comes to a decentralized currency not issued and managed by anyone. 

At the same time, however, Dimon stated that he does not want and does not ask for a ban on using Bitcoin, but simply advises against it. 

Not many remember that JP Morgan’s first major attack on Bitcoin occurred in September 2017, when one BTC was worth about $4,000. It is easy to imagine that investors who followed his advice are not so happy to see the price of Bitcoin at $40,000 now, less than seven years later, considering his advice back then was not to invest in it. 

However, Dimon at least demonstrates to have understood the libertarian concept underlying Bitcoin by stating that everyone is free to do what they want, invest in it or not. He simply does not consider it a good investment. 

BlackRock

JPMorgan Chase is a real bank, although since 2017 it has also become a major asset manager. 

BlackRock, on the other hand, is actually an asset manager, the largest in the world, and not exactly a commercial bank.

So in some ways they are competitors, while in others they are not. 

When the CNBC interviewer asked JPMorgan’s CEO to express his opinion on BlackRock’s new Bitcoin ETF, Dimon simply replied that he is not interested. In fact, he called these things “shit”. 

It should be noted that the listing of Bitcoin spot ETFs in the USA was overall the largest ever, in terms of trading volumes on the first day for a single reference asset (BTC in this case). 

In addition, in just one week, Bitcoin ETFs have become the second largest in the world in terms of overall AUM for a single commodity, surpassing those on silver. 

JPMorgan has decided to stay out of it, and the fact that it now minimizes the huge and immediate success they have encountered vaguely recalls the Aesop’s fable of the fox and the grapes. 

JPMorgan and Bitcoin

JPMorgan has been using blockchain transactions for a long time.

However, it uses a technology that is not a true blockchain, as it is not decentralized. It is their fake centralized and permissioned blockchain, which is not particularly efficient and above all not revolutionary at all. 

It has also created a sort of stablecoin, which however does not seem to have achieved great success in the markets. 

It must be said that Jamie Dimon is not a young up-and-comer with innovative ideas, although truth be told, the CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, is even older than him. 

Dimon and JPMorgan’s approach to the crypto sector seems to have lagged behind by a few years, when it was believed that blockchain would surpass Bitcoin in importance, only to discover that it is precisely on the blockchain that the biggest crimes are committed (see Terra/Luna), and not on Bitcoin. 

Most likely JPMorgan has missed a historic train that will never pass again, while BlackRock and Fidelity have boarded that train. History, as we know, rewards the bold, not the conservatives.