JPMorgan Hires Ex-Celsius Personnel as Head of Crypto Policy

• JPMorgan has hired a new head of the digital assets regulatory policy division.
• Lovine worked at Celsius as head of policy and regulatory affairs.

Despite CEO Jamie Dimon’s criticism of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as “decentralized Ponzi schemes,” the biggest investment bank in the world, JPMorgan has hired a new head of the digital assets regulatory policy division.

According to Bloomberg Law, Aaron Iovine, who formerly worked in a similar role at the insolvent crypto lending firm Celsius, has joined JPMorgan.

According to his LinkedIn page, after nearly three years at Cross River, a crypto-friendly New Jersey financial services business, Lovine worked at Celsius from February to September of this year as head of policy and regulatory affairs.

Forays into Crypto Despite Criticism

Former Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for international financial markets Sharon Yang allegedly heads JPMorgan’s regulatory affairs department, where he will work.

Less than a month after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon again criticized cryptocurrencies, calling himself a “major sceptic of crypto tokens […] like Bitcoin” and likening Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to “decentralized Ponzi schemes,” JPMorgan appointed Lovine to lead its digital assets regulatory policy division.

Dimon’s interest in cryptocurrency was not novel. Back in January 2014, before the collapse of Mt. Gox, the 66-year-old billionaire made his first public comments against Bitcoin, calling it “a terrible store of value” and saying that cryptocurrencies “can be replicated over and over.”

Moreover, Dimon has long referred to Bitcoin as a “fraud” and “fool’s gold,” yet in 2019, JPMorgan created its own U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin named JPM Coin. In addition to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the bank’s wealth management customers may invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum Classic.

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