Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the first reported bitcoin billionaires, have a message for bitcoin critic Jamie Dimon: the digital currency is no bubble.
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“Money is a network. People believe in the U.S. dollar, it has more value. People believe in bitcoin, it has value. People believe in gold, it has value. And that’s not a linear increase. By definition, the more people that get into bitcoin, it makes it more valuable, and when we try and take like equities or stock bubble-type frameworks to bitcoin, it’s really — it’s misguided, because it’s a network, it’s not a company,” Cameron said during an interview on FOX Business’ “Wall Street Week.”
In September, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon slammed bitcoin, calling the cryptocurrency a “fraud” and saying he would fire anyone who trades bitcoin for being “stupid.”
“The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart,” Dimon said at a bank investor conference in New York.
Since then, the controversial currency has soared, touching the $18,000 level before pulling back and has gained 1,700% this year, in part due to the Cboe’s (CBOE) launch of bitcoin futures. The CME (CME) will introduce bitcoin futures on Dec. 18.
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Instead of throwing stones, the twins challenged Dimon to bet against bitcoin.
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“We’ve been working really hard to give Jamie Dimon an opportunity to short bitcoin, and anybody who says that you know, it’s a fraud or a bubble, you can go now [and] put your money where your mouth is, and bet against it,” Cameron said.
Tyler called the JPMorgan Chase CEO’s criticism of bitcoin “cheap” and added, “We encourage Jamie Dimon, we encourage him to personally bet against it, bitcoin, take J.P. Morgan’s balance sheet, bet against bitcoin. We’ll see what happens.”
Cboe Global Markets Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly said on Monday that he thinks confidence in bitcoin — and concerns over fraud — will change over time.
“We’re in the business of being able to express that opinion, and I want to polish this point in a transparent regulated marketplace, and I think a lot of that fraud can fall away when you know your end user,” he said on FOX Business’ “Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast.”
Catch the full interview on Wall Street Week, which airs on the FOX Business Network at 9 p.m. EST.
