JPMorgan Chase CEO has shorted Bitcoin three times. Whose cheese has Bitcoin moved?

Bitcoin, the ancestor of cryptocurrency that has been shining since its birth, has brought us many surprises, but also many controversies. Its controversy comes not only from within the community (the debate over Bitcoin expansion and upgrades), but also from criticism from the traditional financial industry.

Mainstream financial experts have never given up on bearish views on Bitcoin, and one of the Wall Street tycoons who has recently made his presence felt by criticizing Bitcoin is Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

Three times of shorting Bitcoin

Most people assume that Dimon is a recent critic of Bitcoin, but in fact, as early as 2015, he said that virtual currencies would eventually face sanctions and that trading Bitcoin was a waste of time:

You are wasting your time with Bitcoin. This Bitcoin-to-dollar thing will eventually end. No government will support an unregulated cross-border virtual currency. It's not going to happen.

A month ago, perhaps because the growth of Bitcoin prices was becoming more and more noticeable, Dimon publicly reiterated his 2015 view that cryptocurrencies were a fraud. He compared Bitcoin to the tulip bubble and even threatened that some people would die as a result.

Bitcoin is worse than tulip bulbs. It will not end well and someone will die because of it.

Interestingly, he also banned JPMorgan employees from trading Bitcoin, otherwise they would be fired.

Dimon's comments sparked heated discussions in the community, and the price of Bitcoin also experienced a brief drop. Netizens even jokingly called it "Morgan's Big Short."

Unexpectedly, a month later, when the price of Bitcoin hit a new high, Dimon immediately said that he no longer wanted to comment on Bitcoin (I feel sorry for Dimon for three seconds), because he felt that Bitcoin was not important at all (I wonder if his face hurt).

Just when I naively thought that everything was over... only one day later, Dimon started to stir again. In an interview, he said that Bitcoin has no real value at all. Although Goldman Sachs had previously announced that it would consider participating in Bitcoin transactions, he also said "I don't care". He firmly believes that governments will take action to end Bitcoin. He said:

Anyone who buys Bitcoin is stupid and will pay the price sooner or later.

I don't love Bitcoin, I only love blockchain

In fact, Dimon's views are not uncommon on Wall Street and even in the entire traditional financial industry. The traditional financial industry has never been interested in Bitcoin, but instead pays more attention to its underlying technology, blockchain.

Blythe Masters, former top executive at JPMorgan Chase, resolutely gave up her high-paying job on Wall Street and founded the blockchain company DAH (Digital Asset Holdings), which has just completed a $40 million Series B financing round.

The Queen of Wall Street is obsessed with the transparency and traceability of blockchain, and believes that blockchain is a newer, better and more advanced database technology. As for her views on Bitcoin, they are very similar to Dimon. She also believes that regulatory issues will be an insurmountable obstacle to the development of digital currency.

Digital currency has nothing to do with our company's goals. Bitcoin just happens to be an application of blockchain technology, but it is different from blockchain technology. It is actually a unique invention based on personal interests.

In addition, UBS’s recently released report “Cryptocurrency – Under the Bubble” (full text download at CoinWenKu) also explains its attitude towards Bitcoin.

UBS pointed out in the report that the price growth of cryptocurrencies is a manifestation of speculative bubbles. They hope that investors will consider investing more in blockchain companies to promote the popularization of this technology.

Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has concluded that Bitcoin will fail. At a recent event, Bernanke said that blockchain can improve the payment process, and Bitcoin, as an "attempt to replace fiat currency," will eventually be crushed by the government.

Whose cheese was moved by Bitcoin?

As a decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin promotes security, efficiency and transparency, but it may also bring major disruption to the traditional banking industry.

For centuries, the high-handed attitude of the traditional financial industry has been strongly impacted by Bitcoin. The decentralized concept of Bitcoin is expected to eliminate financial intermediaries, and its low-cost transaction model is also far beyond the reach of the traditional banking industry. Faced with such a strong competitor, financial giants such as Dimon are bound to lose their composure.

In addition, most blockchains used in the financial industry are private or consortium chains. JPMorgan Chase is a member of the consortium chain Hyperledger and Ethereum Alliance. This type of blockchain is significantly different from the public chain represented by Bitcoin. Usually private or consortium chains are only open to a limited number of individuals or organizations, who control data access and storage in the blockchain by running nodes. This type of blockchain is not transparent in nature and is "partially decentralized."

In addition, the Bitcoin blockchain is characterized by its immutability, which ensures the authority and security of data content. However, large companies led by Accenture are creating prototypes of blockchains that can be modified, believing that this improvement will make blockchains easier to use for commercial purposes.

From Bitcoin to national cryptocurrencies, from public chains to private chains and alliance chains, the competition between the traditional financial industry and the crypto world has never stopped.

Bitcoin is innovation

However, not all representatives of traditional industries are dismissive of Bitcoin. In the face of Dimon’s radical remarks, many people have stood up to express their opposition.

The U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) believes that the reason these financial professionals have a negative view of Bitcoin is because they have missed the point.

Sure, we can debate the value of Bitcoin, whether it’s overvalued, undervalued, or just a scam… in reality, talking about it based on price completely ignores Bitcoin’s broader technological and innovative achievements.

Coincidentally, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), called on the banking industry to start taking cryptocurrencies seriously. She believes that Dimon's calling Bitcoin a "scam" is extremely unwise, "its potential is much more than that."

Alex Gurevich, a former JPMorgan executive who once worked with Dimon, even bluntly told Dimon to shut up.

The future is here

Horse-drawn carriages, telephones, the Internet... all new things are inevitably criticized by skeptics during their birth and popularization. There was a bubble in the early days of the Internet, and who could have predicted its success today?

Perhaps after reading this article, some people still hold stubborn opinions. In that case, time may be the best proof of the answer to the question “Does Bitcoin have value?”

Finally, I would like to share a classic quote: Long Bitcoin, Short the World (Everything can change, only Bitcoin is eternal). I hope we can continue to be "romantic".