Wall Street is backpedaling on its bitcoin hate.
After criticizing the powerhouse cryptocurrency last year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday he regrets his earlier comments that bitcoin is a fraud.
But
that was about as far as Dimon would go, saying he’s not actually
“interested” in talking about the topic. Basically, he’s just not that
into crypto.
“The bitcoin to me was always what
the governments are gonna feel about bitcoin as it gets really big, and I
just have a different opinion than other people,” he told Fox Business Tuesday. “I’m not interested that much in the subject at all.”
That’s
at most a tepid non-endorsement, but it’s still a shift from his take
back in September at the Delivering Alpha conference, where he suggested
bitcoin was nothing more than a bubble.
“It’s
worse than tulip bulbs,” Dimon said, comparing it to the infamous 17th
century case of tulips in Holland reaching astronomical prices before
suddenly collapsing. “It won’t end well. Someone is going to get
killed.”
At
the time, Dimon noted his daughter had bought some bitcoin. While he
stopped short of suggesting investors short-sell bitcoin in advance of a
collapse, he still doubted her investing acumen.
“I’m
not saying ‘go short bitcoin and sell $100,000 of bitcoin before it
goes down,” he said. “This is not advice of what to do. My daughter
bought bitcoin, it went up and now she thinks she’s a genius.”
Dimon
also said in September he’d “fire in a second” any JPMorgan trader who
was trading bitcoin, noting two reasons: “It’s against our rules and
they are stupid.”
Bitcoin fell after those
original comments, signaling how much effect Wall Street’s commentary
can have on cryptocurrencies’ markets.
On Tuesday, Dimon did have some kind words for the blockchain,
by acknowledging the underlying technology is “real.” It’s just the
specific cryptocurrencies that he still views skeptically, bitcoin first
among equals.
“You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that,” he added. “ICO’s you have to look at individually.”
Dimon’s
shift come at a time when Wall Street seems divided over investments in
crypto markets. While Citigroup CEO John Gerspach has agreed by also
warning against in buying bitcoin, there is an anticipation in explosive crypto buying from Wall Street employees this month.
This
isn’t the first time Dimon has promised to stop talking about bitcoin.
Just a month after his original criticism, the CEO said he was “done”
bringing it up. Just a month later, though, he warned buyers will “pay
the price” by stupidly buying tokens.
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