Jamie Dimon, Government Regulators and Harvard Professors’ Predictions about Bitcoin

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is still a believer in the blockchain, despite calling Bitcoin a “fraud” in September 2017 and threatening to fire any “stupid” employees caught trading the cryptocurrency.

Now, he’s reassessing his thoughts in light of Bitcoin’s adoption on Wall Street.

In a new interview with Fox Business Dimon noted, “You can have cryptodollars in yen and stuff like that. ICOs you got to look at every one individually. The bitcoin was always to me what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big, and I just have a different opinion than other people.”

Dimon’s latest sentiments seem to indicate that a) Bitcoin will get really big and b) Bitcoin isn’t inherit garbage. Instead, the issue he has with the cryptocurrency is how the regulators are going to handle it. Indeed, governments may try to regulate Bitcoin to the point of extinction because of its semi-anonymous features and the perception that its main purpose is to facilitate money laundering and other criminal activities.

The Harvard Crimson reports, “Some Harvard Economics professors say the current high valuation of bitcoin—the founding coin of the international virtual currency boom—is unsustainable and will eventually drop, thanks in part to government regulation.” It continues, “Even if governments do not regulate bitcoin out of existence, (Kenneth) Rogoff [economics professor and cryptocurrency expert] said he thinks the currency—as well as its competitors like Ethereum, Ripple, and Monero—will eventually fall in value thanks to government interference.”