Crypto is about to get even more mainstream.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM-1.03%) customers will soon be able to buy Bitcoin through the bank, CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday during the company’s annual Investor Day.
“We are going to allow you to buy it,” Dimon said to shareholders, while adding that the bank won’t hold the asset in custody, according to CoinDesk. The firm didn’t immediately respond when Quartz about its timeframe.
The move is especially surprising considering Dimon’s long-held negative views of the leading cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin itself has no intrinsic value,” he said in an interview with CBS News (PARA-0.77%) in January. “It’s used heavily by sex traffickers, by money launderers, ransomware. So I just don’t feel great about Bitcoin.” At the time, he also likened the token to smoking. “I applaud your ability to want to buy or sell it, just like I think you have the right to smoke,” he said. “But I don’t think you should smoke.”
Last year, Dimon called Bitcoin a “fraud” and “Ponzi scheme” in an interview with Bloomberg.
During his closing remarks on Monday, Dimon reiterated his anti-crypto stance, saying he’s still “not a fan” of Bitcoin because of its links to illegal activities.
“We have been talking about blockchain for 12 to 15 years,” he said, according to CoinDesk. “We spend too much on it. It doesn’t matter as much as you all think.”
Despite Dimon’s hangups, the new endeavor isn’t JPMorgan’s first move into crypto. Last week, the bank’s blockchain platform, Kinexys, conducted a test transaction on a public blockchain for the first time.
Other major banks have also pushed into the crypto space in recent months. In August, Morgan Stanley (MS-1.00%) began allowing its financial advisors to pitch spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to certain clients. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick told CNBC at Davos in January that the bank is looking for ways to get more involved in the crypto market. In February, Bank of America (BAC-1.24%) CEO Brian Moynihan said the bank would issue its own stablecoin if a legal framework for doing so were to be established.
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