Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer at JPMorgan Chase, regrets calling bitcoin a “fraud” in September 2017, according to a wire report in the
Los Angeles Times.
Dimon made the comments in an interview with the Fox Business network. He said: “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that.”
Previously, he had called the virtual currency “worse than tulip bulbs”. He had also said that traders who bought or sold it would be fired for being “stupid”.
Now, as its value soars, he has admitted that he is still uninterested in the subject matter.
But interest is coming from many parties. The Eastman Kodak Company, otherwise known as Kodak and historically rooted in film-based photography, has branched into the cryptocurrency market as part of a partnership with WENN Digital. The new currency will be called KodakCoin.
Ready-to-drink ice tea producer Long Island Iced Tea Corp will now be renamed Long Blockchain Corp as it aims to focus on blockchain while still making beverages.
Los Angeles Times article
Petro: legal or illegal? A cryptocurrency-centred argument is taking place in Venezuela, Andreina Aponte writes in
Reuters.
Socialist Party President Nicolas Maduro has promoted a ‘petro’ cryptocurrency, but the nation’s opposition-run parliament is against it.
On 5 January 2018, Maduro said just under $6bn of petro would be issued to raise hard currency to evade Washington-imposed sanctions. US President Donald Trump barred American financial institutions from buying Venezuelan-issued debt in mid-2017, thereby stopping Maduro’s Government from refinancing national debt. It is hoped that petro will be used as a payment mechanism for foreign suppliers and circumvent the payment delays that have occurred since Trump’s sanctions.
However, the Opposition is saying that petro is an attempt to “illegally mortgage” Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Aponte cites “cryptocurrency experts” who predict that a combination of Venezuelan economic mismanagement and the Socialist Party’s “lack of respect for private property rights” will result in an uninterested investor reaction.
Legislator Jorge Millan is quoted as saying: “This is not a cryptocurrency, this is a forward sale of Venezuelan oil. It is tailor-made for corruption.”
Legislators have warned that petro will be “null and void” once Maduro is no longer in office.
Reuters article
Cryptocurrency cooperationSouth Korea’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said on 8 January 2018 that it wants to cooperate with watchdogs in China and Japan on cryptocurrencies, according to a
Yonap News report.
The FSC wants to curb speculative transactions amid fears of a bubble. The FSC’s chairman, Choi Jong-ku, described this to reporters as a “fever of speculative investment”. He said the trio of nations have already exchanged ideas on cryptocurrency regulation.
Jong-ku revealed that six retail banks are undergoing on-site inspections from the FSC over cryptocurrency trading accounts, and the Government is also toughening punishments for cryptocurrency related crimes. Currently, cryptocurrency transactions are not recognised as financial products, so they are unregulated. Similarly, virtual currency investors aren’t protected.
It is estimated that more than two million South Koreans are invested in bitcoin, and that figure, locally and globally, will undoubtedly grow. With companies as diverse as Kodak and Long Island Iced Tea Corp entering the fray and a government creating a cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions, it’s anyone's guess who will jump on the bandwagon next.
Yonap News article
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