[ad_1]
JPMorgan just became the first major U.S. bank to give retail clients access to the Bitcoin exhibit, effective July 19, reported Business intern. Unlike other leading banks, JPMorgan apparently wouldn’t restrict access to ultra-rich clients only.
Someone familiar with the move said Business intern that “this applies to all of JPMorgan’s clients seeking investment advice, including the bank’s self-directed clients using its commission-free Chase trading app.” In addition, it will also include a wealthy mass clientele with assets managed by JPMorgan advisors and the bank’s ultra-rich clients.
Under the new directive, JPMorgan’s financial advisers will be given the green light to only accept and execute bitcoin transactions requested by clients, meaning the advisers cannot recommend the investment themselves. But once a client seeks exposure to bitcoin or cryptocurrency, their advisor can purchase shares of Grayscale trusts, such as GBTC, as well as Osprey Fund’s Bitcoin Trust on their behalf.
The move marks a capitulation for JPMorgan, whose CEO Jamie Dimon threatened to fire employees who traded bitcoin in 2017. But Dimon has since become gentler on BTC, having said in May that customers demanded exposure.
“I am not a bitcoin fan,” Dimon said. “I don’t care about bitcoin. I’m not interested in it. On the other hand, customers are interested and I don’t tell customers what to do.”
Likewise, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Director of Asset and Wealth Management at JPMorgan, said in a recent interview that the bank’s customers see Bitcoin as a new asset class.
“A lot of our clients say, ‘It’s an asset class, and I want to invest,’ and our job is to help them put their money where they want to invest,” Erdoes said.
In April, news surfaced that JPMorgan was preparing to offer an actively managed bitcoin fund to its wealthy private clients starting this summer. But apparently the plans haven’t been updated yet.
For large traditional banks, providing clients with bitcoin exposure options is a matter of staying in business. And JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs surely don’t want to risk disappearing.
[ad_2]
Source link