Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump mentioned JP Morgan chairman CEO Jamie Dimon has “modified his tune” towards Bitcoin and crypto, including that he’s prepared to nominate the chief as Secretary of the Treasury.
Trump revealed the long-standing Bitcoin critic’s softening stance throughout an interview with Bloomberg, the place he additionally known as for the US to take care of dominance over the crypto sector. Notably, the statements had been made in June regardless of the interview solely lately being printed.
Trump instructed the newswire:
“I’ve gotten to know individuals within the business, they’re top-flight individuals. And also you ask Jamie Dimon, Jamie Dimon was, , very unfavourable and now abruptly he’s modified his tune a bit bit.”
In the identical interview, Bloomberg requested Trump whether or not he may choose Dimon as Secretary of Treasury. Trump responded:
“He’s any person that I might think about, certain.”
Trump described a June assembly with Dimon and different executives of high US firms coinciding with conferences with Republican Congress and Senate members. Trump mentioned the JPM CEO was in attendance and expressed “loads of respect” for the financial institution govt.
In 2016, Fortune reported that Trump’s transition workforce provided Dimon the place throughout his first time period. Nonetheless, Dimon in the end declined the position.
Extra lately, in December 2023, Axios reported on the opportunity of Dimon heading the Treasury, citing sources near Trump’s marketing campaign.
Dimon’s evolving stance
Dimon has lengthy criticized Bitcoin and crypto. As early as 2017, he known as Bitcoin a “fraud” and mentioned he would hearth any JP Morgan dealer buying and selling within the asset.
Initially of the yr, he repeated his perception that crypto is a Ponzi scheme and superior extreme criticisms of Bitcoin mining. Nonetheless, a couple of months later, in March, he additionally mentioned he would “defend” the best to purchase and maintain Bitcoin even when he wouldn’t achieve this himself, hinting at a softening stance.
Regardless of his unfavourable statements about crypto, Dimon has been an avid advocate of the underlying blockchain expertise. In 2022, he expressed help for DeFi and blockchain, calling every space a “actual, new expertise” in a letter to JP Morgan shareholders.
JP Morgan has been on the forefront of experimenting with distributed ledger expertise and has a number of blockchain-based merchandise, together with its Liink community and JPM Coin.
