Jamie Dimon, chief executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
said he still sees no value in bitcoin and is done with talking about the crypto, after the first several bitcoin exchange traded funds debuted in the U.S. last week.
“I hope this is the last time I’m talking about this [bitcoin] with CNBC, so help me god,” Dimon said in an interview with the news channel on Wednesday.
A number of Wall Street heavyweights, such as BlackRock
BLK,
and Fidelity, last week launched their bitcoin
BTCUSD,
ETFs, respectively. When asked about his views on the companies’ moves, Dimon said “I don’t care.”
“Just please stop talking about this s—,” Dimon said. Bitcoin “does nothing.”
Dimon reiterated his view that blockchain technology has a great potential. “It’s a technology. We use it. It’s going to move money, it’s going to move data. It’s efficient.”
“There’s a [type of] cryptocurrency which might actually do something,” Dimon said of those based on blockchains that enable smart contracts. “We can use it to buy and sell real estate and move data — that may have value. Or to tokenize things that you do something with,” he said.
Bitcoin doesn’t fall into the category, according to Dimon. While the Bitcoin blockchain supports smart contracts, their function remains very limited compared to those on some other blockchains, such as Ethereum
ETHUSD,
“My personal advice is don’t get involved” in bitcoin, Dimon said. “But I don’t want to tell anybody what to do. It’s a free country.”
Such comments are consistent with Dimon’s past stance on bitcoin. He once called the crypto is a “a hyped-up fraud” and “a pet rock.”
