JPMorgan Chase, an American multinational investment bank, has quietly started giving its wealth management clients access to six crypto funds from the past month.
On August 5, reliable people with knowledge about the move confirmed that private clients within the bank have now started gaining access to six crypto funds, including a newly launched Bitcoin fund created by New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG).
NYDIG is a renowned technology and financial services firm owned by Stone Ridge Asset Management and the Stone Ridge Bitcoin Strategy Fund to offer Bitcoin exposure to institutional clients via futures markets.
Further, sources confirmed that since late July, JPMorgan rolled out access to Grayscale investment funds that included Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, and Osprey Bitcoin Trust.
While the traditional financial institution has so far taken a massive leap by providing cryptocurrency exposure through six different funds, it is believed to be taking a majorly cautious approach to how it introduces and offers its new digital-asset services.
According to an undisclosed source quoted by Business Insider, JPMorgan does not allow its advisors to promote the crypto funds but can only quietly conduct the transactions upon the client’s request.
JPMorgan gave open access to all users in Grayscale and Osprey Funds. The firm opened various wealth management platforms including its self-directed Chase trading app, and the NYDIG funds are only open to private banking clients.
Notable signs confirm that JPMorgan has now taken a nuanced approach to cryptos contrary to its earlier stance after its CEO Jamie Dimon described Bitcoin as a fraud back in 2017.
In a related development, a top analyst at Goldman Sachs appears to have started taking a more nuanced approach to Bitcoin after touting toxic gossip, despite the firm actively working to offer cryptocurrency exposure to the sector.
In June, Jeff Currie, the global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, described Bitcoin as a “risk-on” asset similar to copper. In the same month, another top analyst from the bank also released a crypto report arguing that Bitcoin is not a “long-term store of value or an investable asset class.”
Interestingly, Goldman Sachs is currently providing crypto services through a derivatives trading help desk and Bitcoin futures trading platform, which it rolled out last month. The firm has also filed for a sort-of DeFi-based ETF in late July.
