JPMorgan, the largest global bank by market capitalization, expects to start lending directly against crypto assets as early as 2026, the FT reported.
The US lender may include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in the arrangement – a move that highlights traditional finance's growing interest in digital assets as they become more mainstream.
A pro-crypto policy at JPMorgan would be particularly notable, since its CEO Jamie Dimon has been skeptical in the past. He began to articulate a more agnostic point of view earlier this year:
"I don't think you should smoke but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy Bitcoin. Go at it." (Dimon is a throat cancer survivor).
Nonetheless, it's not the first sign that JPMorgan is warming towards digital assets and tokenization.
In June, the company was reportedly preparing to use Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) as a form of collateral in its lending to customers. Two weeks later, the bank promoted a pilot project for a new deposit-token, JPMD, that would be used by institutions for on-chain digital asset settlement solutions as well as cross-border business-to-business transactions.
