JPMorgan Clients Purchase Bitcoin on Stock Market Despite CEO’s Warnings
Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon made a controversial statement at a banking industry conference organized by Barclays, condemning bitcoin and threatening to fire portfolio managers within JPMorgan who have been trading bitcoin.
Despite the warning, according to sources, JPMorgan Securities Ltd. purchased massive amounts of bitcoin through Swedish Bitcoin exchanges when the price dipped to the US$3,000 level.
Dimon’s baseless comments toward bitcoin and his threats to traders led to criticism from bitcoin experts, bankers and former JPMorgan executives including former JPMorgan head of global macro Alex Gurevich.
More to the point, Dimon demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of the structure of bitcoin and blockchain technology in general when he stated that bitcoin should be closed down by the government in the near future.
CNBC analyst Brian Kelly criticized Dimon’s statement, explaining that bitcoin was specifically designed to circumvent governments and authorities by creating a decentralized financial system.