JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon praised the U.S. government for quick action in the wake of COVID-19, yet he criticized it for not having a “pandemic playbook.” Dimon is mostly known among the crypto community for his derisive statements about Bitcoin (BTC). In September 2017, Dimon called Bitcoin “a fraud” right before its historical peak. On another occasion he said: “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed.” A few months later, he acknowledged regretting those statements. (And when JPMorgan subsequently announced the JPM Coin, it made Dimon look a bit silly.) …

Bitcoin has been on a downward streak for the last week, down around 15 percent over the last seven days. That’s bad but it could be worse. You might have put your money in stocks. Some people, though, remain optimistic. RT’s Max Keiser predicts that the coronavirus will push Bitcoin up to $100,000, and JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon will be begging the Fed for money to buy coins. Dimon might want to diversify though. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has suggested that it might not be BTC that pushes the number of cryptousers from 50 million to 5 billion. He …

The sixth-largest bank worldwide, JPMorgan Chase Bank, has settled a lawsuit over unannounced changes made to the fee structure applied to cryptocurrency purchases made using its credit cards in 2018. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed. Plaintiffs Brady Tucker, Ryan Hilton, and Stanton Smith accused Chase Bank of violating its cardholder terms of service during January 2018. The trio asserts that Chase applied the fee structure for cash advances to cryptocurrency purchases made with Chase’s credit cards for 10 days without providing any warning as to the change. Chase changes fee structure for crypto purchases without warning …

When the United States Treasury said on Feb. 13 that it would seek to enact new regulations governing cryptocurrencies, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell by almost 2% within an hour. But Alex Tapscott, for one, thinks it unlikely that the U.S. government will squash Bitcoin, as some fear. As he told Cointelegraph during a recent interview: “Crushing BTC in the U.S. is not feasible, in good part because key U.S. regulators have already supplied guidance on how it should be regulated,” referring to organizations such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, remains …

A recent report by a Major United States bank JP Morgan Chase suggested that current blockchain developments are lying down the foundation for digital money, but adoption is still years away. A report published by JP Morgan on Feb. 21 suggests that the finance industry is moving beyond blockchain technology. Blockchain in banking still years away Per the paper, the groundwork for mainstream adoption of blockchain, fast payments and digital currencies is already in place. According to JP Morgan, the adoption of blockchain in banking is three to five years away. Still, the bank also believes that project’s like Facebook’s …

According to an all-new report released earlier this week, banking giant JP Morgan is currently in the process of facilitating a merger of its in-house blockchain unit called Quorum with Ethereum-based software developer ConsenSys. The deal is currently under negotiation and is likely to be finalized by the end of Q3 2020. Quorum is a blockchain-based network that has been built atop the Ethereum ecosystem. It currently serves as the foundation for JP Morgan’s Interbank Information Network, a decentralized network that connects more than 300 banks and financial institutions, allowing them to exchange a host of information related to payments. …

Prediction can be a bit of a gamble. And when cryptocurrency and blockchain are involved, it wouldn’t be surprising to see people shying away from scrying experiments of any sort. Blockchain gets a bad rep because of its relation to Bitcoin (BTC), the cryptocurrency that many love to hate due to its apparently volatile value. But according to George Gilder, co-founder of the Discovery Institute in Seattle: “Blockchain is the future...it will usher in a world beyond Google.” That’s a pretty hefty claim to make. In order for blockchain to truly flourish as the next “global fabric for value exchanges …

The blockchain world may soon be seeing a major merger with the traditional financial sector. JPMorgan Chase, the United States’ largest bank, is reportedly considering merging its in-house blockchain unit Quorum with major Ethereum-focused firm ConsenSys. According to a Reuters report on Feb. 11, unnamed persons familiar with the matter claim that the merger is likely to be officially announced within the next six months. The financial terms of the deal reportedly remain to be worked out. Ethereum ties are a plus Quorum is JPMorgan’s private blockchain platform built on the Ethereum protocol, and reportedly has roughly 25 employees deployed …

Slowly but surely, institutional players are moving into the crypto/blockchain neighborhood. According to a 2019 Fidelity Investments survey, about 22% of institutional investors already have some exposure to digital assets, with most investments having been made within the past three years. Moreover, 4 in 10 respondents say they are open to future investments in digital assets over the next five years. “Institutional investor involvement in cryptocurrency in 2019 has been primarily about getting the infrastructure in place, such as the opening of Fidelity Digital Assets and Bakkt,” Jonathan Levin, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph, adding: “Now …

Last week saw a whole host of world leaders — including United States President Donald Trump and Prince Charles of Wales, along with a number of other prominent dignitaries — come together to attend the 2020 iteration of the World Economic Forum that was held in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 20–24. As part of the five-day event, the WEF announced its decision to establish a global consortium for governing digital currencies — including stablecoins. Following the news, the price of Bitcoin proceeded to swiftly rise from around the $8,200 mark to $8,455 within an hour’s time. The consortium will consist primarily …

JPMorgan’s blockchain spin-off Kadena has fully launched its public blockchain, completing what it calls the “industry’s first hybrid blockchain platform.” Launched on Jan. 15, Kadena’s public blockchain includes full transactions and the ability to write smart contracts, the firm’s CEO co-founder and Will Martino said in a press release shared with Cointelegraph. The company claims the product is the first sharded Proof-of-Work Layer 1 network to make it to market. Kadena’s hybrid blockchain seamlessly integrates a public chain with a private network As the launch completes Kadena’s hybrid blockchain platform, the fully functional hybrid blockchain enables the connection of a …

Blockchain will be the most in-demand hard skill in 2020, according to a new study by the educational subsidiary of professional social network LinkedIn. A newcomer to LinkedIn’s annual list of top-demanded hard skills, blockchain now tops the list of the most-needed skills in 2020, according to a LinkedIn Learning blog post on Jan. 13. Blockchain to surpass cloud computing and AI in 2020 In 2019, blockchain-as-a-skill overtook major hard skills including cloud computing, analytical reasoning, artificial intelligence (AI), and user experience (UX) design, becoming the number one hard skill in demand among global employers in 2020, according to LinkedIn …