In the wake of cryptocurrency exchange FTX's collapse, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the industry should have been regulated to protect investors.
The industry saw an estimated $9 billion in crypto investments evaporate into thin air when FTX filed for bankruptcy, Yahoo Finance reported Jan. 10. It was, at most, only the third-largest crypto wipeout of 2022, after the implosions of Celsius and Terra Luna erased $33 billion and $20.5 billion in value, respectively.
"They'll write tons of books on this, the money that was stolen out of it, what people knew and didn't know," Mr. Dimon said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
"A lot of people got hurt," he said. "These were retirees, grandmothers, lower-income folks, and it was a shame."
Mr. Dimon has called the digital tokens a "decentralized Ponzi scheme" fueled by hype, the Yahoo Finance report said. But he makes a distinction between crypto assets and their underlying blockchain technology, which could expedite financial transactions.
In fact, JPMorgan has created its own blockchain platform called Onyx, and a digital token called JPM Coin. They are aimed at facilitating client payment transfers, the report said.