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JPMorgan Private Bank is offering clients a managed Bitcoin investment fund in partnership with NYDIG, an online platform offering secure transactions and custody, online crypto data firm Coindesk reported.
The bank is pitching its fund as a safe, cheap way to bet on Bitcoin, Coindesk said.
JPMorgan Chase took on Coindesk and crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co.as banking customers in 2019 and has launched JPM Coin, a blockchain-based digital token that can be used to transfer payments instantaneously among banks and corporate clients.
French asset manager Melanion Capital has announced it will offer a crypto fund, regulated by the European Union (EU), that will include shares of 30 companies, including crypto miners and businesses based on blockchain technology, that closely track Bitcoin’s price movements.
The fund, called Melanion BTC Equities Universe Ucits ETF, will be listed on Paris’s Euronext exchange.
“Ucits” is the acronym for the EU’s investment regulatory regime.
“Most pipes of the traditional financial system stop at access to Bitcoin,” Melanion CEO Jad Comair told the Financial Times.
The new ETF “was a challenge because of the sensibilities and politics currently surrounding Bitcoin and Bitcoin investing,” he said.
The fund will be the first to operate according to EU regulatory standards, even though how regulators will deal with cryptocurrencies and related funds is “all somewhat up in the air,” investment funds lawyer Winston Penhall told the FT.
Singapore’s DBS Private Bank already offers clients access to secure crypto trading platforms and Morgan Stanley is planning to offer wealth management clients access to three crypto funds, Bloomberg has reported.
TREND FORECAST: As we noted in our article “Crypto Sanity” (16 February, 2021), “a move by any of the nation’s largest banks to embrace Bitcoin would be taken as a pivotal moment for digital currencies.”
That moment has arrived. Other banks will now follow suit, moving cautiously to offer access to crypto exchanges for select customers.
Pressure will now increase on the SEC to structure regulations and approve applications for crypto investment funds now sitting in the agency’s inbox.