As a reminder, Dimon's fresh criticism of Bitcoin was no more valid than usual. He called the cryptocurrency useless and on top of that predicted active government involvement in regulating the digital asset niche. That said, James admitted that his bank's clients do not agree with this view and see great potential in the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin itself is feeling confident. The cryptocurrency rose to a local peak of $58,532 this morning and pulled the rest of the market with it.

Bitcoin’s hourly chart

However, the head of JPMorgan this behavior of the asset does not surprise in any way. Among other things, he doubts that BTC has some major advantages that make it noticeably different from ordinary currencies.

What Bitcoin is being criticised for

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous Bitcoin creator, has limited the maximum number of Bitcoins to 21 million coins, which means that he has essentially put a strict limit on the amount of BTCs that can be issued. In addition, every 210 thousand blocks, or roughly every four years, the cryptocurrency network goes through a procedure called halving, which halves the rate of new coin issuance. The last time halving happened in May 2020: at that time miners started getting 6.25 BTC per block instead of 12.5. Approximately in spring 2024 this figure will drop to 3.125 bitcoins, which means that there will be less and less new cryptocurrency. Thus, Bitcoin inflation is controlled – and there is no way to change that, nor to “print” new BTCs.

The rules in the protocol code mean nothing to Dimon, though. Here’s his quote, which has perplexed cryptocurrency fans.

I ask you: how can you be sure there won’t be more than 21 million bitcoins? Do you all read the algorithms? Do you all believe in them? I don’t know, I’ve always been sceptical about this kind of thing.

So Dimon doubts or just pretends that Bitcoin's maximum supply will not be capped at 21 million coins. Although these are essentially the basics of the cryptocurrency that are outlined in its code.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

This quote, published by Decrypt, quickly caught the attention of Brian Armstrong, CEO of major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. He responded to it as follows.

Yes, I have read them. And wrote them down in my own Bitcoin node to remember.

As a reminder, Bitcoin nodes store all the transactions in the history of the cryptocurrency, as well as ensuring that what happens on the blockchain is correct. Accordingly, Armstrong has its own node to help the BTC network work.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

Brian also noted that heads of organisations and companies who “don’t have the knowledge of technology” will be a real liability in the next decades. There are enough free sources on the internet to learn about Bitcoin and its code, he said.

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, which is currently the largest public company holding BTC, also commented on the matter on Twitter. He asked Dimon if bankers really understand Bitcoin. It was a subtle hint that they should really spend more time learning about innovation.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor


We believe it's more important than ever to stay abreast of new trends and key tenets in the crypto industry - it has every chance of becoming the backbone of the global economy of the future, and to ignore it like Dimon would be like signing up to lose out on the huge profit potential of crypto transactions.

Expect no other comments from the representative of the world's largest bank, though. Still, digital decentralized assets seriously threaten the profitability of traditional financial institutions. At the same time, banks are actively earning on transfer fees, and Bitcoin and other coins are in a position to take away that income.

What do you think about this? Share your opinion in our millionaires’ cryptochat. There we will discuss other developments related to blockchain and decentralisation.