Jamie Dimon’s latest crypto comments show CEO is warming to blockchain, silent on Bitcoin

Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., Dimon argued that his bank’s stablecoins and deposit tokens will have real-world use cases, but the decentralized nature of blockchain makes it difficult to get parties to agree on permissions and rules. That’s why JPMorgan’s version of the blockchain is private, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, meaning it has complete control over who uses the chain and how, Dimon said.

“It will replace certain systems that we all use that are outdated, lagging, or don’t work 24/7,” Dimon said, citing short-term loans known as intraday repurchase agreements as an example. But the famous crypto curmudgeon — who said in 2017 that he would “fire in a second” any JPMorgan employee who traded bitcoin — has also made clear that he sees the technology as limited.

“It’s not the only thing that can be fixed, and sometimes the solution is looking for a problem,” Dimon stated, arguing that blockchain “will not replace everything.”

When asked about Bitcoin, he declined to comment on a topic that has become a lightning rod for one of the world’s most scrutinized CEOs. “So that’s all I’ll read about in the headlines,” Damon joked. “Then I get death threats and so on.”

Created by the enigmatic figure Satoshi Nakamoto in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin began as a reaction against the growing power of Wall Street and the big banks. But the sector has expanded since then, and financial institutions have begun to integrate DLT into various operations. This includes JPMorgan, which uses its own permissioned blockchain, Kinexys, to facilitate the movement of funds within its client base as well as developing its own internal token.

Although these efforts have been sporadic, the Trump administration’s pro-crypto leaning has prompted various Wall Street firms to move more quickly to launch their own products. This has led to a boom in stablecoins, or a type of cryptocurrency tied to an underlying asset, usually the US dollar. Some banks have looked to stablecoins as an alternative form of money movement, as blockchain technology could potentially reduce fees and transaction processing times.