HOW IT WORKS

When payment is made with a physical coin, the person who handed it over can’t spend it again. Preventing “double spending” in a digital currency is more complicated

Banks and other financial institutions have been concerned over bitcoin’s early association with online crime and money laundering.

The supply of bitcoin is meant to be limited to 21 million, but there are clones of the virtual currency in circulation which have made the market for it more volatile.

“It is worse than tulip bulbs,” Mr Dimon said, referring to a famous market bubble from the 1600s.

JPMorgan and many of its competitors, however, have invested millions of dollars in blockchain, the technology that tracks bitcoin transactions. Blockchain is a

shared ledger of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet.

Mr Dimon said such uses will roll out over coming years as it is adapted to different business lines.

Financial institutions are hoping blockchain can be adapted to simplify and lower the costs of processes such as securities settlement, loan trading and international money transfers.

Mr Dimon predicted big losses for bitcoin buyers. “Don’t ask me to short it. It could be at $20,000 before this happens, but it will eventually blow up.” he said.

“Honestly, I am just shocked that anyone can’t see it for what it is.”

Bitcoin’s price fell as much as 4 per cent following Mr Dimon’s comments. Rumours that the Chinese government is planning to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges has weighed on bitcoin recently.

“It feels like we are in the midst of a negative news cycle, but even considering all this, we are still trading above $4,000,” said John Spallanzani, the chief macro strategist at GFI Group.