In the financial industry, the remarks and decisions of Jamie Dimon, the CEO of jpmorgan Chase, have always attracted much attention. Recently, he announced at jpmorgan Chase’s Investor Day event that the Wall Street lending giant plans to offer Bitcoin (BTC) related services to its clients. This news immediately sparked heated discussions in the market, and the change in attitude reflected behind it is even more thought-provoking.
At the Investor Day event, Dimon, on the one hand, reaffirmed that he was “not optimistic” about BTC, claiming that it had problems such as money laundering, unclear ownership, and links to illegal activities. On the other hand, he admitted that the demand for BTC trading channels from customers persisted and clearly stated: “I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke.” I also defend your right to purchase BTC. At the same time, he also particularly clarified that jpmorgan Chase does not intend to provide Bitcoin custody services to its clients, but will merely reflect the relevant transaction records in the client’s account reports.
Looking back at Dimon’s past attitude towards Bitcoin and crypto assets, there have been continuous criticisms. In January this year, in an interview, he directly stated that BTC was “worthless” and closely linked it to criminal activities. This view was in line with his stance at the 2023 Senate hearing, when he even advocated for the complete closure of the cryptocurrency industry. At the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, he compared BTC to a “pet stone”, which was of no value at all. In April of the same year, crypto assets were defined as “Ponzi schemes”.
In his speech on May 19th, he also insisted that “the importance of blockchain is not as great as people imagine.” However, in sharp contrast to these doubts and criticisms, jpmorgan Chase has been making frequent moves in the application of blockchain technology. Its blockchain department, Kinexys, not only completed the test transaction of connecting the private network with the public Layer1 blockchain, involving tokenized short-term US Treasury bond assets and real-time settlement protocols, but Chainlink and Ondo Finance were also involved. Moreover, Kinexys processes over 2 billion US dollars of transactions every day and plans to expand the settlement scale between the US dollar and the euro by leveraging jpmorgan Chase’s proprietary token JPM Coin.
In addition to its contradictory behavior in the layout of blockchain technology, jpmorgan Chase has also undergone significant changes in its exposure to crypto assets. According to its 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the first quarter of 2025, the bank has significantly increased its exposure to crypto assets through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As of March 31, jpmorgan Chase reported a staggering increase of $16.3 million in its holdings related to crypto assets, compared to $1 million at the end of 2024.
These holdings were mainly realized through tools related to BTC and Ethereum. Specifically, as of this point in time, jpmorgan Chase held over 263,000 shares of BlackRock’s iShares BTC Trust Fund (IBIT) and approximately 3,000 shares of Bitwise Spot BTC ETF (BITB). At the same time, it also holds shares in Grayscale’s BTC Trust Fund (GBTC) and Mini Trust ETF, Fidelity’s Wise Origin BTC Fund (FBTC), and even newly allocated Bitwise and Franklin Templeton Ethereum products.
However, it is still unclear how many of these holdings are the bank’s proprietary positions and how many are held to meet customer demands. After all, the bank has previously indicated that some ETF allocations might be part of its market-making services.
Jpmorgan Chase has decided to offer Bitcoin services to its clients this time. Although the CEO still holds a skeptical attitude towards cryptocurrencies, it is undeniable that this decision reflects that the influence of the cryptocurrency market is gradually expanding. Even the once firmly pessimistic financial giants have no choice but to adapt to market demands and make changes.
This move is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the cryptocurrency market, further promoting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to move towards the mainstream investment field. As for jpmorgan Chase itself, how to strike a balance between meeting customer needs and controlling risks, and how to handle the relationship between Bitcoin-related businesses and traditional financial businesses in subsequent operations, will all become the focus of continuous market attention.
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