Jamie Dimon still hates magic internet money, but he can no longer ignore it.
TORONTO, ON (May 22 2025) Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase and emperor of the commercial banking world, may have finally put his anti-bitcoin bias to rest.
At least, as a businessman. On Monday, the financial mogul revealed that his bank is finally going to allow clients to buy bitcoin.
“We’re not going to custody it. We’re going to put it in statements for clients,” he clarified.
This means JP Morgan will allow clients to purchase bitcoin through the bank, but the bitcoin would be held by a qualified custodian like Coinbase Custody or BitGo.
Until now, JPMorgan clients could only buy Bitcoin futures products – financial derivatives based on contracts for buying Bitcoin at a future date. These can closely track the price of bitcoin, but aren’t quite the real thing.
CNBC reported that JPMorgan is also considering offering Bitcoin ETFs to its clients. The bank’s rival, Morgan Stanley, has already allowed financial advisors to pitch Bitcoin ETFs to qualifying clients since August.
The bank also has analysts who regularly report on Bitcoin price action, mining activity, and other related subjects, who are hardly afraid to talk positively about the asset. In a report last week, analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote that Bitcoin will likely outperform gold in the second half of his year.
Despite all that, Dimon still – in a personal capacity – hates Bitcoin.
“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke,” Dimon said. “I defend your right to buy bitcoin.”
Dimon repeated one of his past criticisms, comparing bitcoin to “sex trafficking, terrorism” and money laundering. The same tired criticisms that are most often levied by those wishing to impress their government masters, including former SEC chair Gary Gensler and Senator Liz Warren.
In case you weren’t aware, Dimon is not exactly the most well-informed Bitcoin critic. Aside from calling it “worthless” and a “pet rock” in the past, he’s even claimed that “Satoshi’s head” might “pop up” one day and lift bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap. (In reality, Satoshi’s early influence over the protocol had largely diminished even before his disappearance in 2011.)
But hey – at least now it seems he won’t fire any employee “buying or trading bitcoin for being stupid,” like he said he’d do in 2017.
That’s because bitcoin has proven to be a not-so-stupid investment – having appreciated 2000% in price since he made that statement – and has been a magnet for $42 billion of net inflows to Bitcoin ETF since 2024. At one point, no money-hungry businessman can say no to that, even at the expense of his pride.
No More Sats? Jack Dorsey Backs Bitcoin Rebrand
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Block, has thrown his support behind a proposal to rename (or rebrand?) Bitcoin’s smallest unit, the “satoshi,” to simply “bitcoin.”
The proposal, known as BIP 177, aims to redefine the base unit of Bitcoin by eliminating the decimal point and leading zeros, making it more “user-friendly” for newcomers and everyday transactions.
Or so goes the argument. Others think it could cause more confusion than clarity at this point in Bitcoin’s life cycle. 1.10000008 BTC? By removing the decimal, the proposal suggests we write 110,000,008 BTC instead.
The value of Bitcoin would remain unchanged.
“Sats are so confusing to people just getting into bitcoin,” tweeted Jack on Sunday. “Bits of bitcoin is better, and just bitcoin is best”
For context (and as most of us know) bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places, making the smallest single unit 0.00000001 BTC, equivalent to 1 satoshi (or sat for short). It’s no different than referring to $0.01 as 1 cent.
Many bitcoiners even use sats as their primary unit. For example, they’ll say, “I bought 100,000 sats” instead of “I bought 0.00100000 BTC”.
It’s simple enough once you get the hang of it.
On the other hand, some outsiders do find Bitcoin’s price daunting (apx CA$155,000) and sometimes refrain from learning about bitcoin (or buying it), believing it’s too expensive. They are unaware of bitcoin’s divisibility.
Yet changing “sats” to “bitcoin” could create a slew of other problems.
In this new paradigm, the price of one bitcoin today would be listed as less than a penny at CA$0.00155619 (this is the current value of 1 sat).
And what would happen to Bitcoin’s holy meme of “21 million” coins, when the effective supply of bitcoins effectively becomes 2.1 quadrillion?
In any case, BIPs (Bitcoin Improvement Proposals) like these—especially around social issues—are incredibly hard to get passed, and likely won’t see consensus among necessary parties.
Not to mention, sats are already here and well-engrained in the Bitcoin mythos. The rise in popularity of the terminology has been organic, and not defined by any BIP.
Could it be easier? Maybe. But you can’t just undermine an established network effect, even if your idea is objectively better (Dvorak keyboards, anyone?). Plus, stories are important. Sats are named after Satoshi. Satoshi invented Bitcoin. And it just might be the greatest story ever told.
A Special Announcement-Happening Tonight
For anyone in Toronto or the GTA—tonight, May 22 at 7:30pm, we’ll be attending the official book launch for Reclaiming Sovereignty: How I fell in love with Bitcoin written by Suman Kumar. We recently had the pleasure of meeting Suman in person and are very much looking forward to getting our hands on her new book at the launch event this evening.
Most of us in Canada and the west view Bitcoin as an investment or savings vehicle, and that’s perfectly fine. Though to truly understand the power of Bitcoin and it’s potential to change the world, we have to go deeper.
In her book, Suman explores the other side of Bitcoin, and through dozens of deeply personal interviews, uncovers how people worldwide are using Bitcoin to escape inflation, censorship, and financial repression.
The free launch event will be hosted by fellow Canadian author Jesse Berger (Magic Internet Money: A Book About Bitcoin).
Come by to show your support, grab a copy of the book and meet others in the Toronto Bitcoin community.
Event Location:
The book launch event is taking place tonight, May 22, at 7:30pm at the Prenup Pub (upstairs) located at 191 College St in downtown Toronto.
Suman’s book is also available on Amazon.
Stay humble,
Andrew
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