JPMorgan’s Crypto Double Standard: Largest US Bank Invests In Spot BTC ETFs While Dimon Remains A Bitcoin Hater

In a significant development underscoring the increasing interest of traditional financial institutions in Bitcoin (BTC), JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States with $2.6 trillion in assets under management, holds shares in spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In a May 10 13F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), JPMorgan Chase disclosed owning roughly $760,000 worth of shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF. The bank also has exposure to Bitcoin Depot Inc., a Bitcoin ATM provider.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart observed in a post on X that the 13F paperwork is like “snapshots” of institutional long positions on March 31. This suggests that JPMorgan’s exposure to the benchmark cryptocurrency could be even bigger as the 13F does not consider shorts or derivatives.

The SEC greenlighted the listing and trading of 11 spot BTC ETFs on U.S. exchanges in mid-January, and the products have been outstandingly successful since then, raking billions of dollars in inflows. 

The revelation follows a similar filing from JPMorgan’s rival Wells Fargo, which revealed the same day that it bought shares of Grayscale’s GBTC and that it also has exposure to the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) and Bitcoin Depot.

Despite Bitcoin’s increasing adoption on Wall Street, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon remains one of the loudest detractors of BTC.

Dimon Remains Staunchly Opposed To BTC

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has dumped on cryptocurrencies for years.

In December 2023, Dimon told a U.S. Senate Committee that he would shut down crypto if he were in government, further asserting that he is “deeply opposed” to the asset class.

Holding court at Davos a month later, Dimon likened BTC to a “pet rock.” When asked about investment titans like Fidelity and BlackRock getting involved with Bitcoin through spot ETFs, Dimon astutely stated that he “doesn’t care”.

While Dimon may not care about the spot ETFs, JPMorgan is notably playing an important role in BlackRock’s IBIT as one of the fund’s authorized participants. This means JPMorgan helps ensure that ETF prices are accurate and trading is seamless in all market conditions.

He recently doubled down on his long-standing skepticism of Bitcoin, labeling the premier crypto “a fraud” and a “Ponzi scheme.”