JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to allow institutional clients to use their holdings of Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for loans by the end of the year, significantly deepening Wall Street’s crypto integration.
The program, offered globally, will rely on a third-party custodian to protect the pledged tokens, people familiar with the matter said. It builds on JPMorgan’s previous move to accept crypto-linked ETFs as collateral.
A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment.
The expansion underlines how quickly crypto is being drawn into the core of the financial system. With Bitcoin on the rise this year and the Trump administration rolling back regulatory hurdles, major banks are starting to bring digital assets deeper into the lending system.
For JPMorgan, it’s both a symbolic and functional shift: the bank whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, previously dismissed Bitcoin as a “hyped-up fraud” or a “pet” no longer treats crypto as a fringe gamble. Instead, it will be pledged as security for a loan, in the same way as stocks, bonds, gold and other well-known assets.
Lately, Dimon has softened his position somewhat, but he remains skeptical. “I don’t think we should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke,” Dimon said at JPMorgan’s investor conference in May. “I defend your right to buy Bitcoin, go for it.”
JPMorgan is far from the only established Wall Street firm to delve deeper into digital assets lately, as the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance and subsequent regulatory relaxation have helped them become more comfortable with the risk.
Morgan Stanley, for example, plans to give customers on its E*Trade retail platform access to popular cryptocurrencies from the first half of next year. Other companies participating in the action include State Street Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Fidelity, which offer services such as crypto custody.
A recent regulatory change allowed companies like BlackRock Inc. also able to accept Bitcoin from investors and exchange it for ETF holdings that track the token.
JPMorgan began exploring lending against Bitcoin in 2022, but the project was later put on hold, said the people, who asked not to be named because the bank’s plan is not yet public. Since then, customer demand for cryptocurrency support on Wall Street has skyrocketed as the market has grown and regulations have relaxed.
Regulations for this space are already in place in regions such as the European Union, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, while legislation to regulate the crypto market structure is moving through the US Congress. And while the market recently experienced a deep sell-off, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,251 earlier this month.
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Published on October 24, 2025
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