JPMorgan Chase Allows Wealth Management Clients to Invest in Grayscale and Osprey Crypto Trusts

According to Coindesk, people familiar with the matter revealed that JPMorgan Chase has given its financial advisors the green light to allow all its wealth management clients to invest in cryptocurrency funds, making it the first major U.S. bank to do so. In the foreseeable future, banks that are hesitant to enter the cryptocurrency field may eventually be forced to respond to growing customer demand.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has become the first major bank to expand cryptocurrency trading privileges, and not just to high-net-worth clients. The bank, which has been aggressively growing its $630 billion wealth management business, told wealth management advisers in a memo earlier this week that they can now buy and sell orders for five cryptocurrency products, four from Grayscale and one from Osprey Funds, effective July 19.

The move applies to all JPMorgan clients seeking investment advice, including those of the bank who use the commission-free Chase trading app, mass affluent clients whose assets are managed by financial advisers under JPMorgan Advisor, and high-net-worth clients who use private banking services, according to a person familiar with the matter.

JPMorgan's advisors can only perform "voluntary" cryptocurrency transactions, which means advisors cannot actively recommend products, but are allowed to buy and sell cryptocurrency investments on behalf of clients. JPMorgan's approved funds include Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust and Ethereum Classic Trust, as well as Osprey Funds' Bitcoin Trust.

BitPush previously reported that JPMorgan Chase said in April that it was preparing to offer an actively managed Bitcoin fund to private wealth clients, which would be launched this summer.

The move marks a milestone for the bank’s digital asset offerings after its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, threatened in 2017 to fire employees who traded bitcoin. While Dimon has since softened his sentiment toward cryptocurrencies, he said in May that he still did not support clients investing in the asset class despite growing interest in the asset.

Mary Callahan Erdoes, head of asset and wealth management at JPMorgan, told Bloomberg that many of the bank’s clients view cryptocurrency as an asset class and want to invest in it.

Rival banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have not yet given their wealth management clients direct access to cryptocurrency products. BitPush previously reported that Morgan Stanley was the first major bank to begin offering Bitcoin funds to wealthy clients (clients with at least $2 million in investment assets) in April through a partnership with Galaxy Digital. Goldman Sachs began offering cryptocurrency futures trading to institutional clients and hedge funds in June.