 
 
Institutional banking giant JPMorgan has hinted at possible crypto trading for clients in the coming months. This follows similar announcements from the bank’s competitors on crypto market offerings to boost cross-border payments. The move will attract new clients and boost offerings in line with recent institutional risk appetite.
JPMorgan To Grow Digital Markets Offerings
Speaking on a CNBC interview, Scott Lucas, JPMorgan’s head of Markets and Digital Assets, stated that the company will offer crypto trading while it looks to expand other services. Crypto trading has become pivotal to most traditional firms looking to onboard new clients and drive capital inflows. JPMorgan’s approach follows its previous market exposure, but will not include crypto custody.
According to Lucas, custody is not in the near-term horizon for the bank despite competitors like Citibank moving towards that direction. The bank expressed commitment to other options, aiming to capitalize on other options within the digital asset market.
“I think Jamie Dimon was pretty clear on investor day that we’re going to be involved in the trading of that, but custody is not on the table at the moment… There are a lot of questions around our own risk appetite and how far we wanna go down that path, from trading and other sides of it, and custody, I guess, would follow.”
The bank changed its crypto stance after CEO Jamie Dimon, a previous skeptic, became a global supporter of stablecoins. JPMorgan launched the JPMD token, which will impact how institutional investors interact with blockchain technology. Key focus is still placed on stablecoins to easily onboard traditional investors.
 
Apart from cross-border services, stablecoins expose heavy investors to other spheres of decentralized finance (DeFi). “So when it comes to JPMD, I think it’s really exciting, there’s a real opportunity for us to think about how we can offer different services for our clients on the cash side. As well as responding to client demand to do things like stablecoins,” Lucas added.
Furthermore, he noted JPMorgan will take the “and” approach to future blockchain projects. This is due to existing demand to float new programs with “and” opportunities not exclusive to one another. Overall, this would expand its crypto playbook above competitors while limiting risk. This year, the bank announced a partnership with Coinbase to aid crypto purchases. Features included direct bank-to-wallet integration and a transfer to Chase rewards points.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/jpmorgan-plots-crypto-trading-rollout-for-institutional-clients/