Recent comments from JPMorgan Chase & CoCEO Jamie Dimon, slamming cryptocurrencies, have sparked backlash from the crypto community. The CEO’s remarks came during a U.S. Senate Committee hearing, where he labeled cryptocurrencies as criminal tools.
Dimon faced sharp criticism on social media platform X for his comments to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He contended that facilitating crime is the “only true use case” for cryptocurrencies and proposed that the government should “shut it down.”
Crypto supporters were quick to challenge Dimon’s assertions, emphasizing JPMorgan’s history of paying hefty fines for numerous violations. According to Good Jobs First’s violation tracker, the bank has paid a whopping $39.3 billion in fines for 272 violations since 2000.
Notably, around $38 billion of these fines were levied during Dimon’s time as CEO, which started in 2005. This includes a significant $13 billion fine for misleading investors with “toxic” mortgage deals in 2013, and a nearly $1 billion settlement over market manipulation allegations in 2020.
Despite Dimon’s stance against cryptocurrencies, critics highlighted that JPMorgan has its own digital token, the JPM Coin, and has invested in blockchain technology. Fact-checkers on X have also refuted Dimon’s remarks, revealing that less than 1% of crypto transactions are associated with illicit activities.