Cointelegraph by Turner Wright
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase is considering offering cryptocurrency trading to its institutional clients, marking a significant expansion for a traditional financial institution expanding its digital asset services.
According to a Monday Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the plans, JPMorgan Chase is assessing products and services in its markets division as part of a potential expansion into cryptocurrencies. The company’s plans were not public at the time of publication, but could include digital asset spot and derivatives trading.
The crypto trading services are in the early stages of development, in response to interest from the company’s clients amid the changing regulatory environment in the United States. The government under US President Donald Trump has enacted several policies favoring the crypto industry since January, including signing a stablecoin payments bill, the GENIUS Act, into law.
Despite the reported move deepening its ties to the digital asset industry, JPMorgan faced criticism from Strike CEO Jack Mallers, who in November claimed the company closed his accounts without explanation. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a December interview that the company does not debank customers based on religious or political affiliations.
Related: Strike CEO debanked by JPMorgan, Lummis sounds ‘Chokepoint 2.0’ alarm
If confirmed, the institutional client offering would represent a significant about-face on Dimon’s view on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), which he said was only for “criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance” in a 2023 hearing. He said in a July interview that he was a “believer in stablecoins” and saw the benefits of blockchain technology.
US bank not the only game in town on crypto offerings
French bank BPCE is also preparing to launch crypto trading for its retail customers. The move would make the financial institution one of the few banks based in the European Union to offer digital asset services.
BNY Mellon, another global banking giant, said in November that it had launched a money market fund to hold reserves for US stablecoin issuers. The move was in response to regulations under the GENIUS Act, requiring reserves for stablecoin issuers.
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