JPMorgan Chase CEO once again criticizes cryptocurrency: "If I were the government, I would shut it down!"

Zhitong App has learned that Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, fiercely criticized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin during his speech on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, and suggested banning them.

"I have always strongly opposed cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin," said the head of the largest bank in the United States, during a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, in response to questioning from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. "Its only real use is for crime, drug trafficking... money laundering, tax evasion."

"If I were the government, I would shut it down," he added.

These remarks are Dimon's latest attack on cryptocurrencies, despite JPMorgan Chase's significant involvement in blockchain-related businesses, which provide technical support for this $1.6 trillion industry.

In previous statements, Dimon had called Bitcoin a "fraudulent exaggeration," but later retracted that comment. He had also compared Bitcoin to "pet rocks" (pet rocks were a fad in the mid-1970s, where ordinary rocks were marketed and sold as pets).

In response to further questioning from Warren, as part of a routine industry hearing, Dimon and several other CEOs of major banks agreed at a committee-held routine hearing on the industry that cryptocurrency companies should face the same anti-money laundering regulations as major financial institutions.

This topic marks a rare consensus between banking industry leaders and Warren, who has been consistently critical of the cryptocurrency industry.

Warren stated, "In terms of banking policy, I usually don't join forces with billionaire bank CEOs, but this is a matter of national security. Cryptocurrencies should be banned from being used by terrorists, drug dealers, and rogue nations for dangerous activities. It's time for Congress to take action."

Bitcoin Continues to Rebound

Since the cryptocurrency crash in 2022, the price of Bitcoin has doubled in the past 11 months, fueled by hopes of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next year and expectations of the imminent approval of the first-ever physically-backed Bitcoin ETF in the United States. This has sparked strong optimism in the market.

Although the above remarks may indicate that the cryptocurrency industry will continue to face regulation, the efforts to curb suspicious practices within the industry and the recent surge in ETF applications suggest that the cryptocurrency industry is maturing and may be adopted more widely, which is encouraging for optimists, despite the increased regulatory scrutiny in the industry following Sam Bankman-Fried's imprisonment for fraud at FTX.

According to data compiled by Deribit, the largest cryptocurrency options exchange, options traders are betting that Bitcoin will soar to $50,000 by January next year. Many market observers expect that by then, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will finally approve a physically-backed Bitcoin ETF.