JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon Regrets his ”Bitcoin is a Fraud” Statement

Jamie Dimon, chair of JP Morgan Chase, was once again asked about his thoughts on bitcoin. In a wide-ranging interview on FOX Business, Mr. Dimon was given a few of his notable quotes back to him, and asked to assess his present feelings. It appears he’s softened a little on the the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, after once referring to it as “a fraud.”

Chairman of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, sat down for a televised interview with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo for a segment of her eponymous Mornings with Maria. The two discussed recent overhaul of the US tax structure and its corporate rate, the economy, and health care.

They were gathered at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco for the 36th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, which runs through Thursday and included a keynote by Bill Gates.

Ms. Bartiromo, 50, asked also about Mr. Dimon’s comments concerning Mr. Trump being a one term president. The banker, who turns 62 in March, acknowledged it wasn’t his place to have made that statement, and wished to instead focus on policy. Playfully, Ms. Bartiromo queried the famous executive about speculation Oprah Winfrey could run for the American presidency, and he politely declined comment.

Dressed down in sports coat, no tie, Mr. Dimon seemed poised to have fun a little. Continuing her line of questioning on his past statements, she turned to bitcoin.

Ms. Bartiromo, who carries the distinction of having a Joey Ramone song written in her honor, began, “Let me ask you about bitcoin, because that was another famous statement you made, that it’s a fraud,….”

Mr. Dimon perked up, interrupting, “… which I regret making,” he smiled. Punctuating with his left hand, he insisted, “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto dollars and yen and stuff like that. ICOs you have to look at every one individually. The bitcoin was always to me, was what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big? I just have a different opinion from other people. I am just not that interested that much in the subject at all,” he waved away with his right hand, “so I’ll leave that to everybody else to figure out what they really want to do with that.”

The FOX Business host then prompted the banker, “I think it’s funny that I just saw a study that 30 percent of millennials say they’d rather invest in bitcoin than bonds and stocks,” she laughed and smiled, “…I don’t know,” she giggled.

Mr. Dimon grinned and looked over his right shoulder, incredulously, and then laughed, holding up his left hand as a peace sign, “I have a daughter who bought two bitcoins,” he said. Ms. Bartiromo agreed, “Yeah, that’s what I am saying: young people are into bitcoin, so … “

“And [my daughter] now thinks she’s a genius because it went way up,” Mr. Dimon smiled.