Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have their skeptics. The latest person to come out against the popular cryptocurrency crowdfunding method is Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, who called the capital-raising technique and “absolute scam.”
In an interview with CNBC, Wales said that investors should be wary of taking part in ICOs, even though startups have raised $2.4 billion so far this year.
“I think blockchain is a super interesting technology, but there are a lot of fads going on right now … There are a lot of these initial coin offerings, which … in my opinion are absolute scams and people should be very wary of things that are going on in that area,” the Wikipedia founder said in the interview. He does believe, however, that blockchain, which is the technology that makes cryptocurrencies like bitcoin possible, will be around for “some time to come.”
Jimmy Wales isn’t the only skeptical executive when it comes to cryptocurrencies and ICOs. In September, during an investor conference in New York, JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon claimed that bitcoin “is a fraud,” predicting the cryptocurrency would implode.
“The currency isn’t going to work,” the executive said, according to media reports at the time. “You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart.”
Jamie Dimon also said any JPMorgan traders caught working with cryptocurrencies would be fired on the spot. His reasoning: It’s against the company’s rules, and the executive feels it is “stupid.”
His comments come as the price of bitcoin has quadrupled since December of last year, at one point flirting with a new high of $5,000.
“Don’t ask me to short it,” Dimon said, according to Reuters. “It could be at $20,000 before this happens, but it will eventually blow up. Honestly, I am just shocked that anyone can’t see it for what it is.”
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