Dimon Would Shut Down Crypto If He Had Government Role

Jamie Dimon told U.S. lawmakers he would shutter the cryptocurrency industry if he had their power.

“If I was the government, I’d close it down,” the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said at the Senate Banking Committee’s annual Wall Street oversight hearing Wednesday.

The remarks add to Dimon’s long history of bashing digital currencies, which he has previously called “Ponzi schemes” and a “fraud.”

His latest comments follow a series of hacks and scandals in the crypto industry, which has been under increased scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers since the unwinding of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency platform.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, used the hearing to team up with Republicans and banking leaders to take aim at the crypto industry.

“Today’s terrorists have a new way to get around the Bank Secrecy Act: cryptocurrency,” Warren said.

Dimon and other industry chiefs, including Bank of America Corp.’s Brian Moynihan, said they have safeguards in place to prevent terrorists and other illegal actors from using their institutions.