Is Crypto for Criminals? JPMorgan was fined $39B and has its own token.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being dragged over the coals of crypto X (Twitter) after he claimed Bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency's “only real use case” is to facilitate crime.
“The only real use cases for it are criminals, drug dealers, money laundering, tax evasion,” Dimon said at a Dec. 5 hearing before the U.S. Banking Committee. .”
But crypto experts were quick to point out the hypocrisy in Dimon's statements, pointing out that JPMorgan has been fined $39.3 billion for 272 violations since 2000, making it the second-largest fined bank.
About $38 billion of those fines came under the watch of Dimon, who took over as CEO in 2005.
“Talk about being a hypocrite!” said crypto attorney John Deaton in a December 6 post.
“Jamie Dimon is in no position to criticize Bitcoin with this kind of track record,” said Gabor Gurbach, a strategy consultant at VanEck, who said that banks around the world have paid $380 billion in fines this century.
Talk about hypocrisy! Who is the criminal Jamie Dimon? Let me ask you a question: In the last 5 years @jpmorgan has been fined over thirty-five billion dollars (35,000,000,000) for illegal and fraudulent practices, has anyone on your staff used #Bitcoin or… https://t.co/ DF2B4SkbwD
— John E. Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) December 6, 2023
Dimon-led bank He agreed to a $75 million settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands in September for allegedly facilitating and financing Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking activities between 2002 and 2005—noting that settlements are not proof of guilt.
A decade ago, the bank paid the biggest fine in the company's history in October 2013 for $13 billion after defrauding investors on “toxic” mortgage deals. Toxic investments cause the market to collapse by falling in value.
Several JPMorgan traders were investigated for manipulating various metals futures markets between 2008 and 2016 and agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in September 2020 to settle the investigation.
In the year In July 2019, JPMorgan was at the center of the largest cocaine bust in U.S. history when it seized 20 tons, or 18,140 kilograms, of cocaine, worth $1.3 billion, on a ship owned by a JPMorgan fund.
Jamie Dimon looks confused…
He said #Bitcoin is only used by criminals, traffickers and money launderers.
But he is really describing JP Morgan and their clients. pic.twitter.com/KKh9m63nAa
— Walker⚡️ (@WalkerAmerica) December 7, 2023
Dimon says he'll shut down crypto, but JPMorgan has its own brand.
“If I were the government, I would shut it down,” JPMorgan's CEO said in a closing statement to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Wallace at the hearing, referring to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
However, despite their “deep” 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 an institutional client base.
The bank launched a blockchain-based token platform in October with BlackRock as one of its clients. It also contributed $65 million in funding to Ethereum infrastructure firm Consensys in April 2021.
Related: JPMorgan's subsidiary Chase UK to limit crypto transactions
However, it can be assumed that Dimon refers to decentralized currencies as a Ponzi scheme and differentiates between cryptocurrencies with centralized power behind them and those without.
Bankless criticized Dimon's comments, saying that the decentralized nature of the U.S. government could not effectively curb Bitcoin or the cryptocurrency sector.
Dimon's comments sparked a reality check by community notes on X, which found that less than 1% of cryptocurrency transactions are illegitimate.
Magazine: Legislators' fear and skepticism fuel proposed crypto regulations in the US.
