JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon advised lawmakers on Wednesday that he would pull the plug on the cryptocurrency business if he had the facility.
“I’ve at all times been deeply against crypto, bitcoin, etcetera,” he stated in response to a query from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., about using cryptocurrencies by terrorists, drug traffickers and rogue nations to finance their actions. “If I used to be the governments, I might shut it down.”
Dimon, regarded by many as America’s most outstanding banker, stated unhealthy actors use digital currencies to launder cash and dodge taxes, noting that cryptocurrency stays largely unregulated and arduous to hint. He has lengthy criticized the rising crypto sector, as soon as calling it a “fraud” and likening it to historical financial manias.
Warren stated the nation’s banking legal guidelines should be up to date, however that lobbyists for the crypto business are working to dam laws to tighten guidelines on digital currencies, together with compliance with the Financial institution Secrecy Act.
Dimon’s feedback comply with a tumultuous yr for the crypto business, together with the November conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, the previous CEO of bankrupt trade FTC on a number of counts of fraud, and a $4.3 billion settlement with one other main trade, Binance, for its violation of anti-money laundering and U.S. authorities sanctions.
Dimon and different main financial institution CEOs, who had been on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a Senate hearing on regulating Wall Road, testified that their establishments have controls in place to detect and halt illicit crypto transactions.
Warren, a famous critic of Wall Road, urged the assembled monetary executives to assist the “Digital Asset Anti-Cash Laundering Act of 2023,” a bill that will prolong and toughen banking legal guidelines to forestall using crypto for cash laundering, ransomware assaults, monetary fraud and different unlawful actions.
Regardless of requires a authorities crackdown, the worth of the world’s most vital cryptocurrency — bitcoin — has surged greater than 150% this yr to almost $44,000, in keeping with worth tracker CoinDesk.
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