Digital assets facilitate illegal activities and should be banned, Jamie Dimon says
Cryptocurrencies should be outlawed, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at the US Senate Banking Committee’s annual Wall Street oversight hearing on Wednesday.
According to Dimon, who has a long history of criticizing digital currencies, the “only true use case” for cryptocurrencies is criminal activity, from drug trafficking and money laundering to tax avoidance.
“I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc… If I was the government, I’d close it down,” the CEO stated.
Dimon and several other industry chiefs, including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, said the crypto market must follow the same anti-money-laundering rules as traditional financial institutions.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who led the hearing, called on the US Congress to update crypto regulations.
“When it comes to banking policy, I am not usually holding hands with the CEOs of multibillion-dollar banks, but this is a matter of national security,” she said. “Terrorists, drug traffickers and rogue nations should be barred from using crypto for their dangerous activities.”
Warren urged the assembled banking executives to support the ‘Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2023,’ legislation which is expected to toughen banking laws to prevent the use of crypto for illegal activities.
The crypto industry has suffered a slew of scandals over the past 12 months, starting with the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange in November 2022. This placed the sector under intense scrutiny from US lawmakers, resulting in the conviction of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Last month, another major crypto exchange, Binance, was fined $4.3 billion for an array of violations, ranging from money laundering to bank fraud.
