Anti-crypto senator Elizabeth Warren has unleashed another tirade against crypto, claiming it represents a new threat to America. The comments come in response to those from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who said he wanted to close down crypto.
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on December 7, the US senator did not hold back in blaming crypto for the evils the nation faces, such as terrorism and rogue nation financing.
Is Crypto for Criminals?
In partial response to the JPMorgan CEO wanting to shut crypto down, she said:
“There’s a new threat out there – it’s crypto and it is being used for terrorist financing and it is being used for drug trafficking. We can’t allow this to continue.”
However, this could not be further from the truth. On-chain analytics have proved that less than 0.2% of crypto is used for illicit finance, according to Chainalysis.
Nevertheless, the facts did not stop Senator Warren, who also said that Jamie Dimon and I are in exactly the same place because we have a serious problem in this country.
She asserts that crypto is being used to finance terrorism, launder money, and support rogue nations. Another truth of the matter is that the majority of these illicit activities are conducted in cash.
She continued to state that many bank CEOs are also in agreement which comes as no surprise. Decentralized money such as Bitcoin is a big threat to banks and states that strive to maintain a tight leash of control over people’s finances.
In a hearing before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on December 5, Jamie Dimon said, “The only true use case for it [crypto] is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance.” He then added,
“If I were the government, I’d close it down.”
More Hypocrisy Abounds
However, JPMorgan is the second-largest bank in terms of penalties and fines. It has paid almost $40 billion in fines for 272 violations over the past two decades. The majority of these were while Dimon was CEO.
The Wall Street bank has also launched its own JPM crypto token on Ethereum.
It appears that there is one rule for banks and one rule for crypto in the United States.
Although misinformed politicians such as Senator Warren would love to ban crypto, it would be akin to banning the Internet – simply not achievable.
