Coinbase CEO defends JPMorgan CEO Dimon, who called Bitcoin a “pet rock”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a dig at Bitcoin recently, calling it a tool for “sex trafficking and tax avoidance”.
ARK Invest’s CEO Cathie Wood addressed this, voicing her disappointment towards Dimon and stating he needs to learn from Brian Armstrong.
The Coinbase CEO responded to Wood, saying that he has a lot of respect for Dimon and that JPM has been a great partner.

JPMorgan has been active in the crypto space, but its CEO, Jamie Dimon, seems to have animosity towards Bitcoin, leading him to make some really strong comments criticizing it. While he has always received backlash for these statements, this time around, he was defended by the Conbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Coinbase and JPMorgan got each others’ back

JPMorgan CEO recently, for one last time, lashed out at Bitcoin during the World Economic Forum at Davos. Dimon stated that Bitcoin’s use cases are limited to avoiding tax, anti-money laundering as well as for conducting fraud and sex trafficking.

He went on to add that while he did not want to tell other people what to do, his personal advice was to get involved. He added that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are nothing but “pet rocks” that do nothing.

This statement of his came a month after Dimon requested Senator Elizabeth Warren to shut Bitcoin down. But at the same time, he noted that he doesn’t care for the involvement of the likes of BlackRock and other asset managers being involved with spot BTC ETFs and that this was the last time he would ever publicly speak about digital assets.

This was addressed by Cathie Wood, ARK Invest’s Founder and CEO, who stated,

“In 2004, I remember that one of the reasons investors were excited that JPMorgan bought Bank One was that its CEO, Jamie Dimon, was so tech savvy. Tech oriented investors at the time admired him enormously. Jamie, I would like to introduce you to Brian Armstrong.

Interestingly, despite being an inherent member of the crypto space, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong chose to defend Dimon instead of berating him as he tweeted,

We’ve met, and JPM has been a great partner to us. Even if we don’t fully agree on Bitcoin, I have a lot of respect for Jamie as a CEO and have learned a lot from him. Actually everyone I’ve met from JPM has been top notch.
— Brian Armstrong ️ (@brian_armstrong) January 20, 2024

While Jamie Dimon may not stand in favor of Bitcoin or care about BlackRock’s participation, JPMorgan is a close affiliate of the crypto space. The financial firm is one of the Authorized Participants for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which currently is one of the best-performing ETFs in the world.

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