JPMorgan Begins Offering 5 Cryptocurrency Funds to Clients

Global investment bank JPMorgan has reportedly green-lighted its advisors to provide clients with access to five cryptocurrency funds. The funds are available to all JPMorgan’s wealth management clients seeking investment advice. The move makes JPMorgan the first large bank to expand crypto trading access beyond just ultra-wealthy clients.

JPMorgan Now Offers Access to Crypto Funds

• JPMorgan has given its financial advisors the green light to give all its clients access to cryptocurrency funds, the Insider reported Thursday, citing people directly familiar with the matter.
• This move makes JPMorgan the first large bank to expand crypto trading access beyond just ultra-wealthy clients, the publication conveyed.
• In a memo distributed earlier this week, JPMorgan told its advisors that effective July 19, they can take orders to buy and sell five cryptocurrency products. Four of them are from Grayscale Investments: the Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, and Ethereum Classic Trust. The fifth approved fund is Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust.
• A person directly familiar with the move said that the new offering applies to all JPMorgan clients seeking investment advice, including the bank’s self-directed clients using its commission-free Chase trading app, mass affluent clients whose assets are managed by financial advisors under JPMorgan Advisors, and ultrarich clients serviced by the firm’s private bank.
• Greg King, founder and CEO of Osprey Funds (OTCMKTS: OBTC), told Forbes:

We are excited to be onboarded to the JPMorgan wealth platform. OBTC remains the lowest-priced publicly traded bitcoin fund in the U.S. and we believe JPMorgan’s clients will see value in the product.

• JPMorgan has come a long way with regard to cryptocurrency. In 2017, CEO Jamie Dimon threatened to fire employees who traded bitcoin. He said in May this year that his personal advice to people is to “stay away” from cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. However, he acknowledged that his clients want to invest in this asset category.
• Recently, Mary Callahan Erdoes, J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management’s CEO, said that many of the bank’s clients view crypto as an asset class and want to invest in it.
• With this crypto move, JPMorgan joins a growing number of investment banks that have offered or are planning to offer some kind of crypto investments or services to clients, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup. However, JPMorgan is the first to give retail wealth clients direct access to crypto products.

What do you think about JPMorgan offering clients access to cryptocurrency funds while Jamie Dimon advised against investing in cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.