During JPMorgan’s Investor Day, Dimon reiterated that he is “not a fan” of Bitcoin, but acknowledged that clients will continue to demand access to it.
He said:
“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy Bitcoin.”
He also clarified that the bank does not plan on offering custody services.
In his May 19 remarks, he also stated that “blockchain doesn’t matter as much” as people think. However, JPMorgan has continued to build infrastructure around blockchain technology for institutional use.
Earlier this month, Kinexys completed a test transaction that bridged its private network to a public layer-1 blockchain, using tokenized short-term Treasury assets and real-time settlement protocols. Chainlink and Ondo Finance participated in this pilot.
Additionally, Kinexys processes over $2 billion in transactions daily and plans to scale up dollar-euro settlements using JPM Coin, JPMorgan’s proprietary token.
It’s unclear how much of the portfolio reflects proprietary positioning versus facilitation of client demand. The bank has previously clarified that holding some ETF allocations could be a part of its market-making services.
