If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When Jamie Dimon Said He’d Fire Employees ‘In A Second’ For Owning BTC, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today

JPMorgan and Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is among the CFOs who have been vocally opposed to the cryptocurrency sector over the years.

While Dimon’s position has changed slightly, with JPMorgan now owning Bitcoin through ETFs, his comments about the death of the cryptocurrency sector continue.

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What happened: Dimon probably made some enemies in the cryptocurrency sector with his statements seven years ago.

While speaking at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference on September 17, 2017, Dimon did not hold back in his criticism of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and the cryptocurrency sector.

Dimon referred to Bitcoin as “stupid” and “dangerous” and went so far as to label the mainstream cryptocurrency a fraud. The JPMorgan executive also said that if he caught any of his company’s employees buying or selling Bitcoin, he would “fire them in a second.”

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“It’s against our rules and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous,” Dimon said at the time, as reported by Bloomberg.

During his speech, Dimon predicted that Bitcoin would crash, comparing soaring valuations to the Tulipmania of the Netherlands in the 1600s, when the price of bulbs reached new highs and then crashed.

“You can’t have a business where people invent a currency out of thin air and think that the people who buy it are really smart. It’s worse than tulip bulbs.”

Dimon predicted at the time that it would not end well for investors.

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“It’s going to blow up, China just kicked them out, somebody’s going to lose money somewhere else – don’t ask me to short them, it might hit $20,000 before that happens, but eventually it’s going to blow up.”

Dimon was right when Bitcoin hit $20,000, but so far he has been wrong about the main cryptocurrency’s explosion.

Bitcoin traded as high as $4,344.65 on September 12, 2017, the day of Dimon’s comments. An investor could have bought 0.2302 BTC that day for $1,000.

Fast forward to today, and the $1,000 investment in what Dimon said was a fraud and something that would become worthless is worth $14,574.14. This represents a hypothetical return of +1,357.41% over the past seven years.

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For comparison, the same $1,000 invested in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, would be worth $2,278.68. This represents a return of +127.9% over the past seven years.

Why it’s important: Dimon has remained critical of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency for many years, as he has also called for the sector to be shut down in 2023.

The JPMorgan executive recently softened his stance on Bitcoin as it was reported that the bank he heads has exposure to Bitcoin through Bitcoin ETFs.

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Many have so far been wrong when it comes to predicting the death of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sector.

While there might be a risk with cryptocurrency and investing in the sector, the same could probably be said for the stock market and other sectors as well.

BTC Price Action: Bitcoin is trading at $63,310.79 at the time of writing, versus a 52-week trading range of $26,011.47 to $73,750.07.

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This article If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When Jamie Dimon Said He’d Fire Employees ‘In A Second’ Because He Owns BTC, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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