JPMorgan CEO "regrets" saying only drug dealers and murderers use bitcoin

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday he “regrets” disparaging bitcoin as a fraud used by drug dealers, murderers, and North Korea.

Dimon used a Fox Business interview to row back his September comments that sparked widespread anger within the cryptocurrency community.

“I regret making them,” he said, adding that he’s still “not interested that much” in bitcoin.

At the time Dimon made his comments, a single bitcoin was worth just over $4,200. His remarks saw the value briefly drop to $3,750, but it quickly roared back for several months, hitting almost $20,000 in December. The currency then dropped to its current unit price of around $15,000.

Dimon, one of the most prominent figures on Wall Street, said looking forward he was worried about what governments and regulators would do with bitcoin “as it gets really big.”

Since September, bitcoin’s position has been strengthened by the trading of bitcoin futures on several exchanges, giving the cryptocurrency more legitimacy.

In the Tuesday interview, Dimon conceded “the blockchain is real,” admitting, “you can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that.” On initial coin offerings, which have been criticized as potential scams, he said each one should be looked at on its individual merits.