JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he was concerned about current fiscal policies and was skeptical about market optimism about a soft landing. US financier Anthony Scaramucci has never mentioned Bitcoin (he promised not to), but Dimon’s risk-averse comments suggest he needs to do “more homework” on digital assets. said.
It began with an interview with CNBC focused on inflation at the annual Global High Yield and Leveraged Finance conference in Miami. “I’m a little cautious about the whole thing,” Dimon said.
“All of the factors we’ve discussed – QT, fiscal spending deficits, geopolitics – can play out over many years,” Dimon said. “But they will continue to have an effect, but we don’t know what it is.”
Prime Minister Dimon pointed out that the speed of change in the financial market is high and said that although trust in the current market is high, we must be careful about focusing too much on short-term economic indicators without understanding long-term trends.
“(Merger and acquisition) conversations are increasing, stock markets are rising and spreads are nearing historic lows,” Dimon said. “Everything is open because there is a lot of money in pursuing high-yield deals. The market is high and people feel it. Anyway, so far so good.”
In a separate interview CNBC On Tuesday, SkyBridge Capital founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci was asked about Dimon’s comments. Scaramucchi said the JP Morgan CEO is one of the smartest people in financial services. He then followed up with Dimon’s infamous criticism of Bitcoin.
“Jamie is a very smart person. I always listen to him because he’s smarter than me,” Scaramucci said. “Of course, I have a high intellectual odds with him when it comes to Bitcoin.”
Scaramucci said Dimon was one of the few people who had set up Google Alerts, but chastised the banking billionaire for his limited understanding of the top cryptocurrency.
“People like Paul Tudor Jones or Stan Druckenmiller or Larry Fink who actually did their homework were probably negative on Bitcoin before they did their homework, so I told him “I want to ask you to do more homework,” he said. “It’s a one-way ticket to Bitcoin if you actually do your homework to fully understand the asset.”
Scaramucci said one of the reasons to be concerned about Bitcoin is the halving scheduled for around April 20.
“If you look at the last 14 years, you usually get four times the profit after the halving,” he said.
Bitcoin halving refers to an event in which the amount of Bitcoin given as a reward to cryptocurrency miners is halved every four years. The 64th and final halving will occur sometime in 2140, after which no more Bitcoins will be created.
“Bitcoin is currently trading at $57,000. “I’m not sure where the halving will be around April 20th, but let’s say it’s $50,000,” Scaramucci said. “This means it will be more than 18 months since the Bitcoin price halved to $200,000.
“Prices are rising mainly because there is not a lot of supply,” he said.
Scaramucci pointed out that recently approved spot Bitcoin ETFs have increased demand and outpaced Bitcoin’s available supply, with demand 12 to 14 times higher than Bitcoin’s daily production, causing the price to soar.
“Of course, there are people who do not believe in Bitcoin and are selling Bitcoin. So now they are screwed,” he said. “I think it’s a combination of reasons why you’re seeing such large price increases.”
The former Trump administration spokesperson reiterated his confidence in Bitcoin and its potential to outperform gold, while admitting he had been humbled by markets and politics.
“Gold is a $16 trillion asset, and Bitcoin has many of the same properties as gold,” Scaramucci said. “I would argue that it is better than gold because it is easier to move. It should trade for at least half that amount. Now it’s worth $1 trillion.”
Dimon has made no secret of his disdain for BTC, once telling U.S. lawmakers in Capitol Hill testimony that it should be shut down.
“The real use cases for cryptocurrencies are criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax evasion,” Dimon told lawmakers at a Senate Banking Committee hearing last December. “If I were the government, I would shut it down.”
In January, as the financial world waited to hear whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would approve a series of physical Bitcoin ETFs, Dimon again criticized Bitcoin, saying it was “worthless” as a digital asset.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.