JP Morgan once again caused a bit of an upheaval within cryptocurrency circles last week - this time with the publication of their peer-to-peer (P2P) payments network patent application[1] based on distributed ledger technology, like blockchain.
Some crypto enthusiasts branded[2] the move as “hypocrisy to the extreme.” The criticism is not unfounded but perhaps not accurate. The bank, and to a greater extent, their outspoken CEO, Jamie Dimon, has been responsible for a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole.
“Bitcoin is a fraud”
The Jamie Dimon/JP Morgan saga of 2017 is still fresh in the minds of crypto enthusiasts. It all started with Dimon’s now-infamous words calling Bitcoin a “fraud[3]” in September 2017. Shortly after that, in a somewhat confusing move, JP Morgan purchased[4] a chunk of Bitcoin.
Even more confusing was the fact that less than a week later, Jamie Dimon lashed out against Bitcoin, stating that governments would soon ban it. In the same breath, he fired shots at the industry as a whole, saying cryptocurrencies are “worth nothing[5]”. Less than a month later he called Bitcoin investors “stupid[6]”, adding that they “will pay the price for it one day”.
However, JP Morgan’s strategies didn’t always seem to line up with the opinions of their CEO, as in Nov. 2017 the bank announced that they planned to trade Bitcoin futures[7] on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). In December 2017, a strategist at the bank had gone so far as to say that regulated futures markets give Bitcoin legitimacy[8].
By January 2018, Jamie Dimon himself had done a complete 180 on his
