On the Way to Higher Bitcoin Prices

The CEO of JP Morgan Jamie Dimon is being a bit disingenuous by saying that Bitcoin is “worthless.”

He continued to say, “I don’t want to be a spokesperson — I don’t care. It makes no difference to me. Our clients are adults. They disagree. That’s what makes markets. So, if they want to have access to buy yourself bitcoin, we can’t custody it, but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible, access.”

Dimon strikes me as a very “in the box” type of guy and I understand this mentality makes it hard for his brain to fathom a digital currency run by software that is running simultaneously outside the U.S. financial system.

Yeh — it’s a lot to process Jamie — I get it…the uncertainty and the uncertainty of maybe JP Morgan being adversely affected by this keeps him up at night.

I mean what does Dimon have to gain from this when he has made his career off the backs of American taxpayers paying and depositing into the U.S. financial system propped up by the precipitously devalued U.S. dollar which crypto was borne out of?

Dimon’s risk-reward ratio of getting into crypto ecosystem is mind-numbingly poor at this point, better for him to take the Charlie Munger approach and claim crypto as “snake oil” from his golden perch.

Better for him to retire out to his Colonial Revival mansion in the Hampton’s and sip on mimosas at Sunday brunch.

Dimon also said that bitcoin has “no intrinsic value.”

And although he thinks bitcoin will be around long term, “I’ve always believed it’ll be made illegal someplace, like China made it illegal, so I think it’s a little bit of fool’s gold.

China has also made Amazon and Google de facto illegal by effectively banning them from Mainland Chinese internet, so are we going by Chinese law now?

He says there is no intrinsic value but look at stable coins which are a type of cryptocurrency that offer yields on holding the coin which is highly profitable.

Stable coins are doing WHAT BANKS SHOULD BE DOING.

This whole crypto thing is obviously a little over Dimon’s head which is ok.

And increased regulation will and should happen — it’s in the works and it just doesn’t happen in 6 hours — and yes, it certainly will mean higher Bitcoin prices because of a lower systemic risk after effect.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell clarified at the end of September that he has no intention to ban bitcoin in the U.S.

If people want crypto to become more of a mainstream asset, then clearly, regulation is a necessary first step.

Dimon, if like he says — “regulators are going to regulate the hell out of it.” — regulators are doing this because they want to elevate it to a mainstream asset where banks like JP Morgan can charge customers an arm and a leg for custody and levy other fees.

And yes, too much regulation could stifle crypto innovation in the U.S. and push business overseas, this is also certainly another risk.

Ironically enough, the positive shift in sentiment toward Bitcoin can be attributed to recent statements from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler suggesting the long-awaited approval of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. may be just around the corner.

Institutional investors are continuing to pile into Bitcoin as we speak despite prices pushing up to a five-month high.

According to the latest data, more than $226 million in capital flowed to institutional Bitcoin products this past week.

Bitcoin products dominated inflows for the third consecutive week, posting a week-over-week increase of 227%.

Crypto investment products have now posted inflows for eight weeks in a row.

While the SEC has previously shot down every application it has received for physically backed Bitcoin ETFs, the SEC is currently deliberating four applications for exchange-traded funds based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) regulated futures contracts.

With CME’s futures markets offering a product that is already insured and overseen by U.S. regulators, experts believe that Bitcoin futures ETFs are “likely on schedule” to receive a regulatory green light this month.

This is all highly bullish for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.