Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has drawn criticism from the cryptocurrency community on X (formerly Twitter) following his designation as an authorized participant (AP) by BlackRock, which withdrew its updated Form S-1 filing on December 29.
Eric Balchunas, an analyst at Bloomberg ETFs, commented on the BlackRock amendment by stating, “BlackRock has just released its updated S-1, and it DOES identify the APs: Jane Street and JPMorgan (which is somewhat ironic).”
An organization with the authority to issue and repurchase shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) is considered an authorized participant.
As “authorized participants” in its proposed spot Bitcoin ETF application, BlackRock designated Jane Street and JPMorgan Securities in its revised filing. However, Dimon has not publicly endorsed Bitcoin.
Dimon told several U.S. lawmakers on December 6 during a hearing of the United States Senate Banking Committee on oversight of Wall Street firms that if he had the authority in the government, he would attempt to close down cryptocurrencies, claiming that the “only true use case” of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is to facilitate crime.
Rapidly, cryptocurrency analysts have identified JPMorgan’s duplicity in its status as an authorized participant in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. “Perhaps they are also in the business of money laundering, tax evasion, drug trafficking, and criminal activity,” crypto enthusiast Silver Zimmermann wrote on X.
Sunny Po, another user on X, questioned, “If BlackRock wishes to do all that, that is fine, but how can JP Morgan do all that after informing Congress and Elizabeth Warren that this is its purpose?”
John Deaton, an attorney for Pro-XRP, mirrored Dimon’s JPMorgan’s willingness to engage with Bitcoin despite its “negative associations with criminals” and expressed skepticism regarding Senator Elizabeth Warren‘s position on Bitcoin. Deaton questioned whether this constituted an endeavor to deceive the general public or gaslighting.
JPMorgan, which is “deeply opposed” to the digital asset sector, has recently launched JPM Coin, its crypto token, on a private version of the Ethereum blockchain for the benefit of its institutional clients.
In October, the bank introduced a tokenization platform based on blockchain technology, which counted BlackRock as a client. In April 2021, it additionally supported Consensys, an Ethereum infrastructure firm, in a $65 million funding round.
