Bitcoin is a fraud and I’ll sack staff who sell it, warns JP Morgan chief

DIGITAL currency bitcoin ‘is a fraud’ and only useful to drug dealers, murderers and people in countries such as North Korea and Venezuela, says a leading global banker.

In a scathing attack on the cryptocurrency that has won a legion of celebrity fans, Wall Street titan Jamie Dimon, 61, said he was ‘shocked’ by its popularity and warned it will ‘eventually blow up’.

The JP Morgan Chase chief executive said he would fire any employee trading bitcoin for being ‘ stupid’. But he also revealed that one of his daughters had bought bitcoin, adding: ‘It went up and she thinks she’s a genius now.’

Dimon’s comments followed a stark warning from Britain’s financial regulator that digital currencies are highrisk, speculative investments wide open to fraud.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that allows people to bypass banks and traditional payment processes such as cash to buy goods and services. The value of a single bitcoin soared from less than $250 at the end of 2015 to a high above $5,000 this month as it won a wave of fans such as Richard Branson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Julian Assange.

It has since fallen to around $ 4,000 amid reports that a crackdown could see China shut exchanges where bitcoin is traded.

Dimon ( pictured) said: ‘If we had a trader who traded bitcoin, I’d fire them in a second, for two reasons. One, it’s against our rules. Two, it’s stupid.’

He added: ‘ The only good argument [for it] is that if you were in Venezuela or Ecuador or North Korea.

‘Or if you were a drug dealer, a murderer, you are better off doing it in bitcoin than US dollars, you are better off bypassing the system of your country. Don’t ask me to short it. It could be at $20,000 before this happens, it will eventually

blow up.’