JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being criticized by the crypto community on X (formerly Twitter) after being named an authorized participant (AP) by BlackRock, which dropped its updated Form S-1 filing on Dec. 29.
Commenting on the BlackRock amendment, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said, “BlackRock just dropped its updated S-1, and it DOES name the APs: Jane Street and JPMorgan (which is kinda ironic).”
An authorized participant is an organization with the right to create and redeem shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
BlackRock’s updated filing named Jane Street and JPMorgan Securities “authorized participants” in its proposed spot Bitcoin ETF application. However, Dimon hasn’t endorsed Bitcoin (BTC) publicly.
How about that @ewarren, Jamie Dimon’s @jpmorgan is involved with #Bitcoin despite its only use case serving terrorists, drug cartels and other criminals. Or maybe you and Jamie Dimon are simply gas lighting the American public. https://t.co/1dBilLTh7k
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) December 29, 2023
In a Dec. 6 hearing of the United States Senate Banking Committee on oversight of Wall Street firms, Dimon told several U.S. lawmakers that if he had the authority in government, he would try to shut down crypto, claiming Bitcoin and cryptocurrency’s “only true use case” is to facilitate crime.
Crypto pundits have quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of JPMorgan as an authorized participant in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. “Perhaps money laundering, tax evasion, criminal participation, and drug trafficking is their business as well,” said crypto enthusiast Silver Zimmermann on X.
“If BlackRock wants to do all that, then fine, but how can JP Morgan do all that after telling Congress and Elizabeth Warren that this is what it’s used for?” another user, Sunny Po, asked on X.
Related: Invesco Galaxy, Bitwise, WisdomTree, Fidelity join BTC ETF revision rush
Pro-XRP (XRP) lawyer John Deaton also expressed skepticism about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s stance on Bitcoin and pointed out that Dimon’s JPMorgan is willing to be involved with Bitcoin despite “negative associations…
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