JP Morgan Chase CEO Dimon 'regrets' Bitcoin 'fraud' Comments

In an interview with Fox Business, Dimon said "I regret making" the comments in September in which he said Bitcoin was "worse than tulip bulbs" and labelled the cryptocurrency a "fraud".

To clarify his position, Dimon said: "The blockchain is real. You can have cryptodollars in yen and stuff like that. [Initial coin offerings] you have to look at individually."

ICOs are an unregulated way firms are raising funds for a new crytocurrency idea.

Dimon continued: "The Bitcoin was always to me what the governments are going to feel about Bitcoin when it gets really big, and I just have a different opinion than other people."

However, he added: "I am not interested in the subject much at all."

In an interview in September, the CEO said he would fire anyone trading Bitcoin for being "stupid", subsequently claiming it would eventually blow up.

"I would fire [any employee] in a second," Dimon told Bloomberg. "For two reasons: It is against our rules, and they are stupid. And both are dangerous."

The controversial currency exploded in 2017 rising over 1,500% from under $1,000 to trade at $14,156 by the end of the year.

However, Bitcoin suffered a fall on the first trading day of the year for the first time since 2014, declining 4.8% to $13,624 on 1 January. It was down 4.1% to $13,845 by mid-morning trading.

The currency has so far received a fairly negative reaction from financial institutions with Wall Street bear and former director of the Office of Management for President Ronald Regan David Stockman stating the cryptocurrency boom would end disastrously.

"It is basically a class of really stupid speculators who have convinced themselves that trees grow to the sky.

"It will burn out in a spectacular crash. All of these latter-day speculators will have their hands burned to a crisp, and they will learn the proper lesson."

Furthermore, Bank of England governor Mark Carney in December 2017 said Bitcoin's rapid rise would prompt regulators to scrutinise the virtual currency more closely.

"This is not a currency in the accepted sense. There is no central bank that stands behind it. For me it is much more like a commodity.

"This is not at a size where it is a macroeconomic risk to the global economy, but when prices are moving like that, my view would be investors need to do their homework."