JPMorgan to Launch an Actively Managed Bitcoin Fund

The US investment banking giant, JPMorgan Chase is reportedly preparing the launch of an actively managed bitcoin fund for certain clients, which marks the bank's full embrace of crypto as an asset class.

The JPMorgan bitcoin fund, which will be actively managed, could reportedly be rolled out as soon as this summer. Additionally, institutional bitcoin shop NYDIG will serve as JPMorgan's custody provider, according to a third source.

Recently, in conjunction with its mainstream adoption, bitcoin has seen extraordinary price increase. Late last year, with its price breaking the $25k mark, Bitcoin recorded a market cap of $461.9 billion, which is $2 billion higher than that of Visa​ and also over $120 billion bigger than MasterCard's market cap.

Early this year, globally top payments players including Visa, Mastercard and Paypal have lined up to implement further measures to support the use of cryptocurrency​, New Zealand's KiwiSaver Growth Fund has put around 5% of its overall investment to Bitcoin, and AXA Switzerland, a leading provider in the insurance market, has started to accept Bitcoin for payments​. Such moves, which signal the increasing acceptance of crypto, especially bitcoin, drive the continued surge of bitcoin price. Bitcoin has recorded a year-to-date over 85% jump in its price, with an all-time high of $65,000 on April 14.

Therefore, despite JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's personal disdain for the crypto, top deputies within the bank's Corporate and Investment Banking division acknowledged the high client demand for cryptocurrency services. Its divisions including hulking investment, commercial banking and wealth management have gradually enhanced their treatment of crypto and blockchain even before the news about the aforementioned launch of bitcoin fund.