Dimon on Crypto: "If I was the Government, I'd Close it Down"

Chase CEO and Tufts alumnus Jamie Dimon has been skeptical of bitcoin and crypto for some time. While other major banks have made forays into what Charlie Munger termed "trading turds", Dimon has kept his bank out of it.

The truth is bitcoin and crypto never really presented a lawful business case at all. These fake currencies are instruments for everything nefarious from screwing your neighbor out of their life savings to evading taxes to Iran's financing of Hamas. Russia also used crypto to finance its war in Ukraine and to evade Western sanctions. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren today also specifically focused on $20 billion in crypto movements involving North Korea and other rogue nations, as well as terrorists groups that could be seeking to do harm ot the US homeland.

Over the last couple of weeks, bitcoin's price has surged, leading many to proclaim that there is some sort of new value is it.

It is therefore refreshing to see Massachusetts' Senator Elizabeth Warren seeking tighter sanctions today. Even more refreshing was seeing Dimon reply:

"I've always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc. You pointed out the only true use true case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance. That is the use case. Because it is somewhat anonymous - not fully - and because you can move money instantanously and because it doesn't go through all of these systems that have been built up over many years - know your customer, sanctions, OFAC - you can bypass all of that. If I was the government, I'd close it down."

All of the other bank CEO's testifying today proceeded to agree with Warren that crypto exchanges should be regulated by rules at least as strict regarding crypto transactions as their institutions are exposed to for cash transactions.

The complete Senate banking testimony is below. Elizabeth Warren's questioning begins around the 2 hour 10 minute mark.