Investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase plans to allow its institutional clients to use bitcoin and ethereum as collateral for loans.
According to the American edition of Bloomberg, the clients' digital assets will be stored with a third-party custodian. The sources also reported that the growing demand for cryptocurrency support from institutional clients was the reason for the company's transition to digital assets.
People familiar with the situation claim that JPMorgan Chase began exploring the possibility of lending in bitcoins back in 2022. However, this plan was eventually postponed because the industry had not yet received sufficient support.
In addition, in the past, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was skeptical about cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin. Initially, he considered the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization to be useless, calling it an "overblown scam."
However, his views seem to have changed recently. So, in May 2025, he announced that he would allow the bank's customers to buy bitcoin. However, he later clarified that JPMorgan would not keep them. And in June, JPMorgan applied for the registration of the "JPMD" trademark, prompting speculation that the bank was planning to launch its own stablecoin.