The U.S. will begin regulating cryptocurrencies as unease about stablecoins and crypto in general grows in Washington, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon predicted Monday (Oct. 11).
“Blockchain can be real, stablecoins can be real,” Dimon said, speaking to the Institute of International Finance annual membership meeting, per a Bloomberg News report. “No matter what anyone in the room thinks, nor what any libertarian thinks, nor what anyone thinks about it, the government’s going to regulate it.”
The CEO repeated his own views on bitcoin, making sure to differentiate his own opinion and how his bank will handle the cryptocurrency.
“I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless,” Dimon said. “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.”
Meanwhile at the forum, Citigroup Inc. Chairman John Dugan said it would be appropriate to require banks to have high capital requirements for holding crypto assets.
See: Crypto Regulation, and Possible Executive Order, Show Top Down Approach
On the government side of things, we reported Sunday (Oct. 10) on some of the measures the White House is considering for regulation of cryptocurrency, including a possible executive order and efforts by the National Security Council (NSC) and National Economic Council (NEC).
“The NSC and NEC are coordinating across the interagency to look at ways we can ensure that cryptocurrency and other digital assets are not used to prop up bad actors, including ransomware criminals,” the White House National Security Council spokeswoman said.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced the formation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which will handle its own cases, while also working with other agencies in tackling crypto-related crimes.
“Team members will combine their expertise in financial systems, blockchain technology, tracing transactions and applicable criminal statutes to address illegal activity involving cryptocurrency in a structured way,” the DOJ said.
These measures come at a time when scams involving digital assets are on the rise. More than 7,000 people reported scams related to these assets between October 2020 and May 2021, a 12-fold increase from the previous year.
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