JPMorgan CEO Calls Bitcoin ‘Stupid’, Offers Bitcoin Trading Anyway

The CEO Of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon has been quite vocal in his criticism of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In fact, he has been known to threaten to fire employees who traded in cryptocurrency and called the market stupid. Despite its CEO’s clear dislike of Bitcoin, however, it would seem that the bank is actually considering offering a trading option involving the digital currency.

The change of heart involves the potential Bitcoin-trading opportunity by the CME Group Inc. that’s based in Chicago, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company basically wants to start offering Bitcoin futures by this year’s end, which is a sign that traditional entities are now taking cryptocurrency more seriously.

Many other major financial institutions have been dipping their toes in the waters of cryptocurrency trading of late, including Deutsche Bank and HSBC. However, what makes this development regarding JPMorgan’s interest in Bitcoin interesting is how it’s so close to when Dimon made the critical remarks regarding the subject.

As one of Bitcoin’s staunchest detractors, the JPMorgan CEO certainly has not made his views regarding the digital currency a secret. One of his mildest comments about Bitcoin is calling it “worse than tulips bulbs,” which refers to the Dutch Tulip craze of the 1600s.

Dimon has also been incredibly vocal about his doubts about the future of cryptocurrency, even saying that it was never going to work, the Independent reports.

“The currency isn’t going to work. 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,” Dimon once said.

With Bitcoin’s surging price consistently proving him wrong, however, perhaps the financial figure is finally up for changing his mind. As of writing, each coin is now worth more than $8,000, tempting Wall Street to start speculating about its future.