American multinational investment bank, JPMorgan Chase is now offering its services to cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a new Tuesday report by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the matter.
Per the report, JPMorgan in April approved banking accounts for Coinbase and Gemini, suggesting that the famous Wall Street bank has finally softened its stance towards cryptocurrencies, a move that could potentially motivate other banks to support the emerging industry.
The sources further revealed what kind of services that JPMorgan is offering to these crypto companies, namely, cash management services and processing dollar-denominated transactions for customers using Coinbase or Gemini to trade cryptocurrencies.
It is to be recalled that in the past, JPMorgan and a number of Wall Street banks outrightly banned customers from using credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan understandably had both exchanges undergo a long vetting process before letting them in, and is reported to have felt comfortable with the fact that Coinbase and Gemini are controlled by top regulatory bodies in the United States.
While Coinbase is registered as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and also has a BitLicense, from the NYDFS, Gemini, on the other hand, has a Trust charter from the NYDFS, as well as the coveted Delloite Pass for financial services companies.
JP Morgan’s decision to finally offer banking services to crypto-related firms evidently represents the stance most traditional financial institutions are now adopting, after a marginalized approach to the crypto industry in its early years.
JPMorgan on its part had made some efforts to explore blockchain technology, launching its JPM Coin for interbank transactions back in 2019, even though CEO Jamie Dimon is famous for labeling Bitcoin as “a fraud” back in 2017.
Interestingly too, Coinfomania reported earlier this year that the bank finally admitted that Bitcoin and crypto assets belong to an investor’s portfolio as a hedge against a loss of confidence in both the domestic currency and the payments system.
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