Jamie Dimon is tired of talking about Bitcoin.
“Yeah, so this is an important thing,” Dimon said during an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “This is the last time I’m ever talking about this on CNBC, so help me God.”
A longtime critic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Dimon acknowledged blockchain as a genuine and useful technology for transferring money and data—noting that JP Morgan has used it for about 12 years.
When it comes to cryptocurrency, however, he categorized them into two types: one with practical applications, such as smart contracts for real estate transactions, and another with no functional use, likening it to a “pet rock”—again pointing to Bitcoin as an example.
Last week, before the SEC approved several Bitcoin ETFs, Dimon reiterated his stance that Bitcoin has no value.
“The actual use cases are sex trafficking, tax avoidance, anti-money laundering, [and] terrorism financing,” Dimon said. “I’ve always said Bitcoin doesn’t have value.”
In December, Dimon said the U.S. government should kill Bitcoin. During today’s conversation with CNBC, Dimon again brought up a potential ban.
“I think another risk to Bitcoin,” he said. “If you can’t solve the bad use cases, the government’s probably going to have to close it down.”
But while Dimon said Bitcoin is only good for speculation, he said he defends the right to invest in it.
“My last statement, the last time I’ll ever talk about Bitcoin, is I defend your right to do Bitcoin,” he said. “I don’t want to tell you what to do. So my personal advice is don’t get involved, but I don’t want to tell anyone what to do. It’s a free country.”
Along with his general skepticism about the value of Bitcoin, Dimon said he does not believe Bitcoin will be capped at 21 million coins as fixed in the Bitcoin codebase, predicting an apocalypse for the largest cryptocurrency once the last Bitcoin is mined in 2140.
“I do think there’s a good chance that when Bitcoin, when we get to that 21 million Bitcoins, that Satoshi is going to come on there, laugh hysterically, go quiet.
“Bitcoin is going to be erased,” Dimon predicted, adding that he has never met anyone who knows for a fact that the 21 million cap would happen.
But in an example of a CEO’s views not necessarily representing those of the company, JP Morgan joined with BlackRock to be an active participant in the investment giant’s spot Bitcoin ETF that was approved along with ETFs from VanEck, Fidelity, Bitwise, and others.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, also a longtime Bitcoin critic, changed his tune on the digital asset in an interview with Fox Business last week after the Bitcoin ETF approvals went through.
“Let’s be clear: if you’re in a country where you’re fearful of your government—and maybe this is one of the reasons why China has banned it—if you’re in a country where you’re fearful of your future, fearful of your government, or you’re frightened that your government is devaluing its currency by too much deficits, you could say this is a great potential long-term store of value,” he said.
When asked about BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s change of heart on Bitcoin, Dimon remained defiant.
“I don’t care, just please stop talking about this shit,” Dimon said. “I don’t know what he would say about blockchain versus currencies that do something versus Bitcoin that does nothing—It may be that’s not different than me.
“But you know, this will make some market people have opinions and this the last time I’m ever stating my opinion,” he vowed.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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