JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he personally considers Bitcoin (BTC) "useless," adding that it will face increased regulatory scrutiny in a while.
"No matter what anyone thinks about it, government is going to regulate it," Dimon said. "They are going to regulate it for (anti-money laundering) purposes, for (Bank Secrecy Act) purposes, for tax."
These bearish comments unavoidably pushed Bitcoin down to $ 56,200 on Tuesday, albeit above its price of $ 50,000 a week ago.
But Dimon stressed that his personal views may differ from those of JP Morgan's board of directors or asset management clients, and said the bank "can provide them with legal and cleanest access" to Bitcoin.
Indeed, JPMorgan and other asset management firms offer many ways to access Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. CoinShares said investment capital is pouring into the industry, including $ 226 million last week. Almost all streams go to Bitcoin, followed by Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL).
CoinShares also said that over the past eight weeks, $ 638 million has been transferred to crypto assets. As such, together with rising prices, assets under management are now just 5% below their all-time high of $ 67 billion.
More crypto-related products are also being launched. For example, Invesco released two ETFs last week: the Invesco Alerian Galaxy Crypto Economy ETF (SATO) and the Invesco Alerian GalaxyBlockchain Users and Decentralized Commerce ETF (BLKC).
So, Dimon is not really wrong when he said that regulations are likely to become tougher for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In fact, the Biden administration already convened a task force to develop new rules for stablecoins, and the head of SEC, Gary Gensler, has repeatedly called for the regulation of some cryptocurrencies as securities.
Bloomberg also reported that the White House is currently considering an executive order to direct a number of federal agencies to study cryptocurrencies and recommend legislative changes.
The Congress is also considering new rules for crypto tax reporting.