A few weeks back Jamie Dimon used some very harsh words for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general.
He called it a "fraud" and a scam saying that investment wise "someone was going to get killed".
He even went on to say that if any of his traders at JPM were caught trading Bitcoin they would be fired for being dumb.
These were extremely harsh words and very surprising coming from someone in such an influential position.
Even if he may think those thoughts privately, it is another animal all together to come out and say them publicly like that.
Usually people in his position choose their words very carefully as they know every single word will be scrutinized and analyzed and are likely to make tomorrow's headlines.
What happened next?
First, there was the twitter find where someone pointed out that JPM Securities makes a market for a security in Sweden that tracks the price of Bitcoin.
It just so happened that several buy orders were being routed through JPM Securities right around the time that Dimon was publicly bashing Bitcoin etc, and dropping the price to multi week lows.
So, JPM was buying at the same time it's CEO was bashing?
It looked like market manipulation in every sense of the word.
However, JPM was quick to respond saying that JPM Securities was just making a market in that security and they were not actually buying any of it for their company or employees.
Instead it was clients routing orders through said market maker.
So, it's not good enough for JPM the company to buy it, but it's good enough for JPM clients to buy it? Hmm.
That thought was also quickly squashed by JPM when they further stated it was actually other market makers routing orders through theirs to fill orders for their clients.
That wasn't a good enough explanation for everyone.
Shortly after, a company in Sweden called Blockswater filed a market manipulation and market abuse lawsuit against Jamie Dimon for making knowingly false and misleading statements against Bitcoin with the intent to push down prices and hurt its reputation.
Since that time Jamie Dimon has pretty much stuck to his guns regarding Bitcoin.
Saying things like:
"It's just not a real thing, it will eventually be closed."
However, the plot thickens even more...
Recently it was revealed by Bart Stephens, the co-founder and managing partner of San Francisco-based venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, that Jamie Dimon's remarks were extremely hypocritical.
Why might he say that?
Check this out:
"While Jamie Dimon was making those comments, I was an invited speaker at JP Morgan's offices in San Francisco to give a talk with other fund managers and clients of JP Morgan who are really curious about cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology."
So, while Dimon is calling Bitcioin a fraud and something that will be closed, some of his coworkers are attending conferences and meetings trying to learn more about it and the underlying technology?
Something about that doesn't quite seem congruent.
Final thoughts:
Looking at all of the above there are a couple conclusions I have come to.
Either Jamie is afraid of Bitcoin and trying to shut it down before it takes off and ultimately hurts his business.
Or...
Jamie is trying to push prices down in order to get better entry points while at the same time trying to understand and harness the technology for use by his financial firm.
To further expand on that, Dimon either believes what he is saying and thinks Bitcoin is a fraud, which means he is publicly bashing something his company is making a market in for his clients, or he really is trying to get in at better prices.
Either way, Jamie would probably have done better for himself by taking the high road on all of this stuff and sticking to politically correct statements like most banksters in his position tend to do.
Stay informed my friends.
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/11/blockchain-capital-founder-jamie-dimon-is-a-hypocrite-about-bitcoin.html
Image Sources:
https://twitter.com/IamNomad
https://twitter.com/pbartstephens
Follow me: @jrcornel