JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being dragged over the hot coals of Cryptocurrency
“The only real examples of people using it are criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax evasion,” Dimon said at a Dec. 5 U.S. Banking Committee hearing. “If I were the government, I would shut it down.” .”
However, cryptocurrency experts were quick to point out the apparent hypocrisy in Dimon’s comments, noting that JPMorgan is the second-biggest punishing bank, paying $39.3 billion in fines for 272 violations since 2000, according to Good Jobs First’s violation tracker. emphasized.
About $38 billion of those fines were incurred under Dimon, who took over as CEO in 2005.
“Try calling me a fucking hypocrite!” Cryptocurrency lawyer John Deaton said in an article posted on X on December 6:
“Jamie Dimon is in no position to criticize Bitcoin with this kind of track record,” said Gabor Gurbacs, a strategic advisor at VanEck. He pointed out that this century, banks around the world have paid $380 billion in fines.
Call me a fucking hypocrite! Who is criminal Jamie Dimon? Let me ask you a question. over the past 5 years @jpmorgan Illegal and fraudulent activities have resulted in fines of more than thirty-five billion dollars ($35,000,000,000). Has anyone on your staff used it? #Bitcoin Or… https://t.co/DF2B4SkbwD
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) December 6, 2023
The Dimon-led bank agreed to a $75 million settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands last September over allegations that it facilitated and financially benefited from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation between 2002 and 2005. It is important to note that a settlement is not an admission of guilt.
A decade ago, the bank paid $13 billion in October 2013, the largest fine in the company’s history, for fraudulently misleading investors about “harmful” mortgage transactions. Toxic investments are investments that have fallen significantly in value and cause a market crash.
Several JPMorgan traders were also investigated for allegedly manipulating various metal futures markets between 2008 and 2016, and agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to conclude the investigation in September 2020.
JPMorgan was also at the center of the largest cocaine seizure in U.S. history in July 2019, when 20 tons, or 18,140 kilograms, worth $1.3 billion were seized from a vessel said to be owned by funds run by JPMorgan.
Jamie Dimon looks confused…
Only people who use it say that. #Bitcoin They are criminals, traffickers, money launderers…
But he’s actually describing JP Morgan and its clients. pic.twitter.com/KKh9m63nAa
— Walker⚡️(@WalkerAmerica) December 7, 2023
Dimon said he would shut down the cryptocurrency, but JPMorgan has its own token.
In his final statement to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Wallet at the hearing, JP Morgan’s CEO mentioned Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and said, “If I were the government, I would shut them down.”
However, despite “serious opposition” to the digital asset sector, Dimon and JPMorgan recently launched their own crypto token, JPM Coin, on a private version of the Ethereum blockchain for their institutional customer base.
The bank also launched a blockchain-based tokenization platform in October, with BlackRock as a client. It also contributed to the $65 million funding round of Ethereum infrastructure company Consensys in April 2021.
Related: JPMorgan subsidiary Chase UK restricts cryptocurrency trading
However, it can be assumed that Dimon was making a distinction between cryptocurrencies that have centralized power and those that do not, as he has previously referred to decentralized currencies as Ponzi schemes.
Bankless also criticized Dimon’s comments, explaining that the U.S. government cannot issue an effective ban on Bitcoin or the cryptocurrency sector due to its decentralized nature.
Dimon’s comments prompted a community note fact-check for X, stating that less than 1% of cryptocurrency transactions are illegal.
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