JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Reiterates His Personal Disapproval of Bitcoin

Today, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon reiterated his personal disapproval of Bitcoin during the bank's annual Investor Day event.

Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon has again expressed his personal disapproval of Bitcoin, despite the bank providing clients with access to the crypto asset.

During the bank’s annual Investor Day event on Tuesday, Dimon said that he is “not a fan” of Bitcoin.

JPMorgan is going to allow clients to buy Bitcoin, but the bank won’t custody it, according to reports by Bloomberg.

Dimon said that while JPMorgan will provide clients access to Bitcoin investments, the bank will not hold or manage the digital asset itself.

“I am not a fan,” Dimon said.

Dimon previously expressed skepticism toward Bitcoin in a January interview with CBS News.

“Bitcoin itself has no intrinsic value. It’s used heavily by sex traffickers, money launderers, ransomware,” Dimon said.

He noted that “we are going to have some kind of digital currency at some point.”

“I just don’t feel great about bitcoin. I applaud your ability to wanna buy or sell it. Just like I think you have the right to smoke, but I don’t think you should smoke.”

Dimon’s comments come in contrast to recent optimism expressed by JPMorgan analysts regarding Bitcoin’s market prospects.

JPMorgan analysts reported that Bitcoin is likely to continue gaining ground at gold’s expense in the second half of the year, driven by rising corporate demand and growing support from U.S. states.

“Between mid-February and mid-April gold was rising at the expense of bitcoin, while of the past three weeks we have been observing the opposite, i.e. bitcoin rising at the expense of gold,” said JPMorgan analysts.

“In all, we expect the YTD zero sum game between gold and bitcoin to extend to the remainder of the year, but are biased towards crypto-specific catalysts creating more upside for bitcoin over gold into the second half of the year.”

Since April 22, gold has dropped nearly 8%, while Bitcoin has surged 18%, indicating a substantial shift in investor preference away from gold and toward Bitcoin. Capital has been flowing out of gold ETFs and into Bitcoin.

Several U.S. states are also opening up to bitcoin—New Hampshire now permits up to 5% of its reserves in Bitcoin, Arizona is launching a bitcoin reserve and has pledged not to raise taxes this year at the state level, and more companies, such as Strategy and Metaplanet, are expanding their bitcoin holdings.

“As the list grows, with other U.S. states potentially considering adding bitcoin to their strategic reserves, this could turn out to be a more sustained positive catalyst for bitcoin,” said the analysts.