JP Morgan made some big headlines this week. Their CEO called Bitcoin a fraud and compared it to the tulip media. In response, the Bitcoin community was not amused due to this baseless false claim. It now appears one of JP Morgan’s top strategists feels exactly the same way. In fact, Marko Kolanovic went as far as referring to Bitcoin as a pyramid scheme.Financial institutions and their staffers keep grasping at straws to delay the inevitable.
It is always peculiar to see banks call Bitcoin a pyramid scheme. Unlike a financial institution, cryptocurrency doesn’t need any form of affiliate scheme or outrageous bonuses and offers to entice new people. That privilege is beholden to banks. If banks had no fresh capital coming in, their entire pyramid scheme would collapse in a heartbeat. Moreover, a bank can determine who should or shouldn’t have access to basic financial services. With Bitcoin, everyone is treated equally without requirements.
Marko Kolanovic Works for a Pyramid Scheme
All of this makes the remarks by Marko Kolanovic all the more unusual. While it is evident he wants to back JP Morgan CEO Dixon, his words may come back to haunt him. It is true Bitcoin is volatile and incredibly difficult to value. Then again, so are fiat currencies, stocks, precious metals, oil, et cetera. There is no such thing as a non-volatile financial market or asset, for obvious reasons. The difference is how the market decides Bitcoin’s value, rather than banks stating what the value should be to begin with.
To make matters even more interesting, Bitcoin doesn’t create value out of thin air. More specifically, the coins are virtually generated through extensive computational processes. Fiat currency is printed by a machine and has no value to it. However, banks treat it as a way to inject new capital into struggling economies. They are the only ones who can print money and do so in an unlimited capacity. If that isn’t a pyramid scheme in its own right, no one knows what is.
Said remarks by Marko Kolanovic are not surprising. JP Morgan is one of the few narrow-minded institutions openly denouncing Bitcoin. Whether or not they are in the right, remains to be seen. Pointing out how mining becomes more difficult and less profitable means absolutely nothing, It has been like this for over 9 years now. This doesn’t label Bitcoin as a pyramid scheme, especially not compared to shady tactics used by banks such as JP Morgan. These are clearly delusional comments by Marko Kolanovic and JP Morgan CEO Dixon as well.
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