2.63 million Bitcoin ETF shares held, JPMorgan Chase's actions betray CEO's words

Source: Blockchain Knight

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the Wall Street lender plans to offer BTC to its clients, a move that marks a sharp turn from his past attitude toward the digital asset.

At JPMorgan Chase's Investor Day event, Dimon reiterated that he is "not bullish" on BTC, but acknowledged that customers will continue to ask for access to BTC trading channels.

He said: "I don't think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I also defend your right to buy BTC."

He also clarified that the bank does not plan to provide custody services.

Dimon Remains Skeptical

Dimon's criticism of Crypto assets is consistent with his past remarks. In a January interview, he called BTC “worthless” and linked it to criminal activity, reiterating concerns he raised during a 2023 Senate hearing when he advocated for a complete shutdown of the industry.

At the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, he called BTC a “pet rock,” and in April of the same year, Dimon called Crypto assets a “Ponzi scheme.”

In a May 19 speech, he also said that “blockchain is not as important as people think.” However, JPMorgan has been building blockchain technology infrastructure for institutional use.

Earlier this month, its blockchain division Kinexys completed a test transaction connecting its private network to the public Layer1 blockchain, using tokenized short-term U.S. Treasury assets and a real-time settlement protocol. Chainlink and Ondo Finance participated in the pilot.

In addition, Kinexys processes more than $2 billion in transactions per day and plans to expand the scale of settlement of US dollars and euros using JPMorgan's proprietary token JPM Coin.

JPMorgan Chase Increases Crypto Asset Exposure

Against the backdrop of remarks about providing BTC services, JPMorgan Chase's 13F filing for the first quarter of 2025 submitted to the SEC showed that the bank has significantly increased its exposure to Crypto assets through ETFs.

As of March 31, the company reported $16.3 million in Crypto asset-related holdings, up from $1 million at the end of 2024. The bank's exposure to Crypto assets is mainly achieved through instruments related to BTC and Ethereum.

As of March 31, JPMorgan Chase held more than 263,000 shares of BlackRock's iShares BTC Trust (IBIT) and about 3,000 shares of Bitwise Spot BTC ETF (BITB).

The bank also holds shares of Grayscale's BTC Trust (GBTC) and Mini Trust ETF, Fidelity's Wise Origin BTC Fund (FBTC), and newly allocated Bitwise and Franklin Templeton Ethereum products.

As of the end of the first quarter, the bank's Crypto asset-related holdings accounted for only a small portion of its $4.4 trillion in assets under management.

It is unclear how much of these holdings reflect the bank's proprietary positions and how much are to meet client needs. The bank has previously clarified that holding some ETF allocations may be part of its market-making services.