JPMorgan & Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is among the finance executives who have vocally opposed the cryptocurrency sector over the years.
While Dimon’s stance has changed slightly with JPMorgan now owning Bitcoin through ETFs, his comments about the death of the cryptocurrency sector live on.
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What Happened: Dimon likely made some enemies in the cryptocurrency sector with his statements seven years ago.
While speaking at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference on Sept. 17, 2017, Dimon didn’t hold back with his criticism of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and the cryptocurrency sector.
Dimon referred to Bitcoin as being “stupid” and “dangerous” and went as far to label the leading cryptocurrency as fraud. The JPMorgan executive also said that if he caught any of his company’s employees buying or selling Bitcoin, he would “fire them in a second.”
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“It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous,” Dimon said at the time, as reported by Bloomberg.
During his speech, Dimon predicted that Bitcoin would collapse, comparing the rising valuations to the Tulipmania in the Netherlands in the 1600s, when the price of bulbs reached new highs and then collapsed.
“You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think the people buying it are really smart. It’s worse than tulip bulbs.”
Dimon predicted at the time that it wouldn’t end well for investors.
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“It will blow up, China’s just kicked them out, someone’s going to lose money somewhere else – don’t ask me to short it, it could be at $20,000 before this happens, but it’ll eventually blow up.”
Dimon was right about Bitcoin hitting $20,000, but so far has been wrong about the leading cryptocurrency blowing up.
Bitcoin traded as high as $4,344.65 on Sept. 12, 2017, the day of Dimon’s comments. An investor could have purchased 0.2302 BTC that day with $1,000.
Fast-forward to today, and the $1,000 investment in what Dimon said was a fraud and something that would become worthless is worth $14,574.14. This represents a hypothetical return of +1,357.41% over the last seven years.
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For comparison, the same $1,000 invested in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index, would be worth $2,278.68. This represents a return of +127.9% over the last seven years.
Why It’s Important: Dimon remained critical of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency for many years, as he also called for the sector to be shut down in 2023.
The JPMorgan executive has recently softened his stance on Bitcoin, as it has been reported that the bank he runs is exposed to Bitcoin via Bitcoin ETFs.
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Many have been wrong to date when it comes to predicting the death of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sector.
While there could be a risk with cryptocurrency and investments in the sector, the same could likely be said for the stock market and other sectors.
BTC Price Action: Bitcoin trades at $63,310.79 at the time of writing versus a 52-week trading range of $26,011.47 to $73,750.07.
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This article If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When Jamie Dimon Said He Would Fire Employees ‘In A Second’ For Holding BTC, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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