Hours after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin (BTC) “the Pet Rock”, Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 CEO Samson Mow lashed back X. By Pet Rock, Dimon was referring to the Pet Rock fad in the 1970s. The scheme had involved selling rocks to consumers for $4 apiece. These rocks came in ventilated custom cardboard boxes as if they were a living thing in there. Nevertheless, it has helped its creator to become a millionaire.
Mow posted on the social media platform that, if Dimon had any sense, he would transform JPM into a “Bitcoin Bank”. He has also added that Dimon should stop talking nonsense about the only thing that prevents CBDCs from ruining the banking industry. The adamant proponent of BTC argued that banks, including JPMorgan, can benefit by offering blockchain-related services to the public. He pointed out that, to stay relevant in the new era of finance and digital economy, banks should transform into, what he has called, “Bitcoin banks”.
The CEO of the largest bank in the United States has always been a harsh critic of Bitcoin and has previously said that BTC is primarily a vehicle for fraudulent activities. During a senate hearing this month, he said that, “I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc. If I was the government, I’d close it down.”
In reply, Mow has emphasized the potential of the first and largest cryptocurrency and suggested banks adopt the new technology rather than seeing it as a threat. The words of the Jan3 CEO imply that denying the role of BTC is equivalent to standing in the way of the financial revolution that has been in the making since the release of the Bitcoin white paper, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Mow had earlier predicted that Bitcoin price would abruptly surge to $1 million. Jan3, the entity Mow has co-founded and is presently the CEO of, is a Bitcoin adoption company. The operations of the firm include building Bitcoin infrastructure like exchanges, wallets, and mining solutions; layer-2 technologies that promote faster and cheaper transactions; and Nation-state adoption of BTC. Notably, Jan3 has helped develop the “Bitcoin City” in El Salvador.
Privacy advocate and whistleblower Edward Snowden also questioned the validity of Dimon’s criticism of BTC in the context of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval of spot-based Bitcoin ETFs. Snowden, on X, even went so far as to call Dimon that guy who spends one half of every interview insisting ‘I don’t care about Bitcoin’, and the other half sobbing that it stole his wife and shot his dog”. Ironically JPMorgan plays a key role in the new adoption of Bitcoin ETFs if it is approved.
Micheal Saylor, head of the business intelligence software firm MicroStrategy, commented with a pinch of sarcasm that even if Bitcoin is only traded among people without fear of debasement or theft, it is still a form of digital money. MicroStrategy is a major corporate holder of BTC and Saylor thinks of it as a hedge against inflation and a potential replacement for traditional currencies.
With all the logic going in favor of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency remains extremely volatile, dropping by more than 10 percent in the past week, including a 1 percent drop since Dimon’s remarks.
