JPMorgan Chase & Co. is preparing to connect the worlds of conventional banking and digital currencies, revealing intentions to accept
Bitcoin
and
Ethereum
as collateral for institutional lending before the year concludes, according to several sources:
a CryptoFront report
,
a FinanceFeeds report
, and
a Yahoo Finance article
. This development represents a significant change for the major bank, which has previously been cautious about cryptocurrencies. By enabling qualified clients to use BTC and ETH as collateral without liquidating their assets,
JPMorgan
is responding to increasing demand for liquidity solutions in the digital asset sector, while reducing direct custody exposure by utilizing third-party custodians, as mentioned in
a CoinCodex report
. This strategy fits into broader regulatory developments, including the Trump administration’s favorable stance on crypto, and further legitimizes Bitcoin and Ethereum as recognized assets in mainstream finance, according to the aforementioned reports.
At the same time, Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to reinforce their positions as leading digital assets. Bitcoin is widely regarded as digital gold, while Ethereum maintains its leadership in decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts, ensuring their ongoing significance, as covered in
a LiveBitcoinNews piece
. Still, experts point out that both assets may have limited short-term growth prospects, especially given ongoing macroeconomic challenges. JPMorgan’s inclusion of crypto-backed ETFs and now direct crypto holdings as collateral reflects growing institutional trust, but also emphasizes the necessity for robust risk controls in a volatile market, as noted in other analyses.