JPMorgan Chase & Co. started allowing all its retail wealth management clients to access cryptocurrency funds, becoming the latest large financial firm to throw its support behind crypto, according to a Business Insider report on Thursday.
That makes JPMorgan the first large U.S. bank to give crypto trading access to clients other than its wealthiest ones.
JPMorgan told its financial advisors in a memo earlier this week that, effective July 19, they could take buy and sell orders from their wealth management clients for five cryptocurrency products, the Business Insider report said.
Four of those products are from Grayscale Investments: the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust and Ethereum Classic Trust. The other fund is the Osprey Bitcoin Trust.
The funds are reportedly available to all JPMorgan clients seeking investment advice, including the ultra-wealthy serviced by its private bank, self-directed clients who use its commission-free Chase trading app and mass affluent JPMorgan Advisors clients.
JPMorgan declined to comment on the report Friday. It also declined to comment on its current position on cryptocurrency in general.
However, Greg King, CEO and founder of Osprey Funds, submitted a comment to ThinkAdvisor on Friday, saying: "We are excited to be onboarded to the JPMorgan wealth platform. OBTC [the Osprey Bitcoin Trust] remains the lowest-priced publicly traded bitcoin fund in the U.S. and we believe JPMorgan's clients will see value in the product."
