Following the unfavorable market conditions that have beclouded the crypto space over the past few weeks, the CEO of the global investment bank, JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon has expressed concerns over what he feels is still the “beginning” of “unfavorable market conditions.”
Cryptocurrencies have seen a massive decline in their value over the past few months, with many down over 50% from their respective all-time highs.
“Brace For Impact” — Dimon
The CEO of the global banking behemoth aired his sentiments at a financial services conference, stating that an “economic hurricane” is looming, getting set to hit the financial markets, and by extension crypto, any time from now.
Dimon has earned a reputation for being a staunch crypto critic and maintains a hardened stance against the utility of cryptocurrencies. However, the bank he heads, JPMorgan, is gradually moving to adopt crypto and is forging ahead with plans to offer its users crypto trading options.
Speaking at the conference, Dimon advised founders, traders, and other investors to “brace for impact”, as the market conditions are bound to worsen. Dimon’s stance, as explained, finds its basis in the fact that the Federal Reserve is expected to “begin its quantitative tightening” policies, which will take liquidity out of the markets.
Making the rallying cry, he said, “I said they’re storm clouds. They’re big storm clouds here. But I’m going to change it… It’s a hurricane [and] that hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy.”
Telling a room full of investors and analysts his predictions, he also mentioned that JPMorgan is putting measures in place to weather the storm. “JPMorgan is bracing ourselves and we’re going to be very conservative with our balance sheet”, he said.
“Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle this,” Dimon explained. “That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We’ve never had QT like this, so you’re looking at something you could be writing history books on for 50 years.”
Referring to the tightening policy, Dimon said that central banks do not have a choice “because there’s too much liquidity in the system. They have to remove some of the liquidity to stop the speculation, reduce home prices and stuff like that.”