JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has lashed out at Bitcoin and others, suggesting cryptocurrencies should be banned while speaking on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. "I have always been very opposed to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, etc.," the head of the nation's largest bank by assets said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing when asked by Senator Elizabeth Warren. "The only real use it has is for crime, drug trafficking... money laundering, tax avoidance."
"If I were the government, I would shut it down," he added.
It's Dimon's latest swipe at cryptocurrencies, despite his bank's heavy involvement in blockchain, which powers the $1.6 trillion industry.
In previous statements, Dimon called Bitcoin "an exaggerated fraud." He once compared it to a "pet rock." (Note: Pet stones became popular in the mid-1970s, and merchants sold ordinary stones as pets through marketing and packaging)
Following further questioning from Warren, Dimon and several other major bank CEOs agreed during a routine committee hearing on the industry that crypto companies should face the same anti-money laundering regulations as major financial institutions.