JPMorgan Chase & Co. became the foremost bank in the United States to provide Bitcoin to retail customers, creating a fresh page in the cryptocurrency history. According to a recent story, the bank will start offering a product, which it has been providing to its super rich customers, paving way for the entry of Bitcoin into a new $630 billion market.
According to Business Insider, the plan to extend its Bitcoin offerings was taken early this week. Furthermore, the magazine said that the New York-based bank has sent a letter to its financial advisers instructing them to take in buy and sell orders for five crypto products from its wealth management customers.
Grayscale, the crypto behemoth, offers four of the five investment vehicles. They are Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, and Ethereum Classic. The Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust is really the only non-Grayscale offered crypto asset that JPMorgan will provide its customers. Greg King, the founder and CEO of Osprey Funds, which manages two additional trusts – Polkadot and Algorand – voiced his delight at the decision. “We are thrilled to be included in the JPMorgan wealth platform,” he told Forbes. OBTC is still the cheapest publicly listed Bitcoin fund in the United States, and we expect JPMorgan’s clients to benefit from it.”
JPMorgan’s advisors are only permitted to make crypto transactions, as per Business Insider. They can’t make product recommendations; they can only sell and buy at the behest of their clients. All customers seeking investing recommendations, including those who utilize the Chase trading app, will be able to access the crypto assets.
It will also be offered to the JPMorgan Advisors division’s wealthy clientele. This is besides its highest level clientele being served by its private bank. JPMorgan, the United States’ largest bank and globally the sixth-largest, has begun facilitating its customers to participate in a Bitcoin fund that is actively administered.
The custodial service for the fund was provide by the cryptocurrency focused company NYDIG. While JPMorgan is currently increasing its crypto offerings, it hasn’t always been a supporter. In particular, its CEO, Jamie Dimon, isn’t very enthusiastic about decentralized currencies. He warned of terminating workers who bought and sold Bitcoin (BTC) in 2017, the same asset he is now offering to trade on behalf of clientele.
He was also an outspoken critic of the crypto industry. “I’m not a bitcoin supporter,” he said at one point. Bitcoin is irrelevant to me. It’s not anything I’m interested in. Clients, on the contrary, are keen, and I don’t advise them what they should do.”
If you are not in a position to fight them, join them, has turned out to be the bank’s stance regarding cryptocurrency. “A number of our customers call it an asset class and express investment interest,” Mary Callahan, the bank’s Asset and Wealth Management CEO, told Bloomberg earlier this week. Our role is to facilitate customers’ choice of investment.”
