• JPMorgan Chase has started pitching its in-house Bitcoin fund to its Private Bank clients. 
• Although there are currently no investments in the fund, the bank has already held a call with advisers to brief them on the development.

Investment banking company JPMorgan Chase has reportedly started pitching its Private Banks clients on a passive Bitcoin fund. The matter on the Bitcoin fund for wealthy clients of JPMorgan was revealed by two sources familiar with the development. Basically, JPMorgan Private Bank is offering a passively managed fund to its customers. 

JPMorgan announces In-house Bitcoin fund

According to the sources, the Bitcoin fund is in partnership with Bitcoin-dedicated tech and financial services firm New York Digital Investment Group LLC (NYDIG). Currently, no client has invested in the passively managed fund, the sources revealed. However, there may be a change to the investment story soon as the investment bank recently had a call with advisers to brief them on the development. 

Speaking on the advantage of the Bitcoin fund by JPMorgan, the sources noted that it would be offered to clients as the most secure and affordable Bitcoin investment vehicle available on the private markets.

Notably, JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon has never been a fan of Bitcoin. The CEO had made several antagonizing comments on Bitcoin but specifically said he is “not a Bitcoin supporter.” Dimon mentioned a while ago that he also does not care about BTC. However, the bank’s CEO acknowledged that clients are interested in the digital asset, and JPMorgan has the responsibility of satisfying the needs of its consumers. 

Maintaining his stance as a non-supporter of Bitcoin, Dimon declared in a statement: 

On the other hand, clients are interested and I don’t tell clients what to do.

JPMorgan becomes the first bank to offer BTC to retail customers 

Last month, JPMorgan became the first bank in the US to offer Bitcoin to retail customers. Sources from the bank confirmed that the it sent a memo to all its financial advisers to access and by orders for five crypto products. Out of the five products, four are Grayscale’s Trust offerings. They are the Bitcoin trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, and the Bitcoin Cash Trust. The other product that is not a Grayscale offering is the Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust.

As client demand for crypto assets increases, traditional financial institutions have started moving to offer crypto-related services to their consumers. Other banking giants such as Morgan Stanley and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. have also considered offering crypto services to clients. DBS Private Bank began the first-ever bank-backed crypto trust services in Asia. 

When the DBS announced the services in May, the bank said that banking clients would be able to safely invest. DBS also assured that clients will customize and manage their assets in a well-structured manner. In addition, the offering was established in the DBS Digital exchange. As such, the supported cryptocurrencies are the ones hosted on the digital exchange. They are Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Ripple’s XRP.