JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon now reportedly regrets calling bitcoin a “fraud,” though he is still not a fan of the cryptocurrency.
In an interview with FOX Business Tuesday, Dimon said:
“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. I’m not interested that much in the subject at all.”
Dimon made the fraud comment on Sep. 12 of last year, adding that he would fire any trader known to be trading the cryptocurrency.
Offering a critique of Dimon’s opinion at the time, a senior analyst for Macquarie Group pushed back against some of the criticism against bitcoin coming from Wall Street.
Viktor Shvets, head of global and Asia-Pacific equity strategy for Macquarie, wrote in September that in spite of any “extreme speculation,” bitcoin relies on a “durable technology that is likely to continue to evolve and strengthen.”
In October, Dimon said he was done talking about bitcoin following his controversial comment. Yet, soon after he opined that bitcoin buyers will “pay the price” if they are “stupid enough to buy it.”
While Dimon is still not interested in the subject of bitcoin, he had praise for blockchain technology.
The CEO told Fox Business today, “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that. ICO’s you have to look at individually.”
Jamie Dimon image via CoinDesk archives