JP Morgan is not trading with bitcoins, as some initially suspected

JP Morgan custodian account on NASDAQ, operating with Bitcoin Tracker One, led some cryptocurrency enthusiasts to believe that the company is being hypocritical: while the CEO of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon tells bitcoin is a fraud, the company does not think so and quietly trades with bitcoins.

It soon became clear, however, that Bitcoin Tracker One does not equal Bitcoin. The former is a financial asset which price is based on the average value of Bitcoin on several big cryptocurrency exchanges and multiplied by the Swedish krona exchange rate. It has been certified by the Swedish financial regulator and traded since May 2015, becoming the first financial asset based on Bitcoin in the world.

JP Morgan mentioned in connection with this does not necessarily mean that this bank buys these securities for its own needs. This is a nominee account, as the head of Altana Digital Currency Fund noted on his Twitter. Such accounts are usually opened for professional securities market participants which hold its brand securities, but for some other parties, not owning these securities fully. In other words, JP Morgan might be brokering and gain benefits from deal fees, but it almost certainly doesn’t trade with bitcoins. Especially if one remembers how Jamie Dimon said that if he ever sees someone in his company trading bitcoins, he would fire them for incompetency.

News about Jamie Dimon’s speech have reached Russia, and German Gref, the head of the state-owned Sberbank, one of the most passionate advocates of the blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies, told that he understood the CEO of the bank. “The technology is just being formed, and no bank CEO is ready to offer cryptocurrency to its clients. Under no circumstances should ICOs or the cryptocurrency use be banned, but before it’s all fully developed, it shouldn’t be offered for use, especially to unqualified investors,” Gref clarified.