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JPMorgan is responding to the increasing demand from its clients who want exposure in crypto assets by expanding its offerings of investment options. The bank now offers access to a Bitcoin fund that is specifically targeting its private banking clients.
Starting on August 5, JPMorgan’s financial advisors were allowed to accept placements from private bank clients into the new Bitcoin fund created by the crypto firm New York Digital Investment Group, according to CNBC, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. NYDIG is owned by the New York-based financial services firm Stone Ridge Asset Management.
The new BTC fund is called the Stone Ridge Bitcoin Strategy Fund and offers exposure to the largest crypto by market cap via the futures markets, according to Cointelegraph. The new fund is reportedly similar to the fund NYDIG offers to Morgan Stanley clients.
Last month, JPMorgan started offering clients access to five crypto funds from Osprey Funds and Grayscale Investments. These are the Osprey Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Investments’ Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, and Ethereum Classic Trust.
All five crypto funds from Grayscale Investments and Osprey are available to all users of JPMorgan’s various wealth management platforms. However, access to the new Stone Ridge Bitcoin Strategy Fund is restricted to private banking clients only.
While JPMorgan appears to have already shrugged off its initial reluctance in embracing the crypto market by offering exposure via six different funds, the financial firm is cautious in offering its digital asset services to clients. Sources say that advisors cant overtly promote the funds but can only initiate transactions upon clients’ requests.
In fact, sources requested not to be identified when they revealed the new crypto offerings because of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. The CEO is known as an outspoken Bitcoin and crypto skeptic and, back in 2017, Dimon described Bitcoin as a “fraud” that wouldn’t end well.
JPMorgan’s move to offer crypto exposure to clients seems to signal that Wall Street’s reluctance to deal with crypto is finally over. Rival banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are already offering Bitcoin funds to clients.
