JPMorgan Eyes Crypto Collateral: Banking Giant Tests Waters with Client Bitcoin-Backed Loans

Wall Street's love-hate relationship with crypto takes a bullish turn.

JPMorgan—once Bitcoin's loudest critic—is quietly building the plumbing to accept digital assets as loan collateral. Because nothing says 'trust' like a bank monetizing what it publicly mocked.

The play? Simple: Clients park their Bitcoin or Ethereum with the bank, borrow against it at competitive rates. No need to sell—just good old-fashioned leverage with a blockchain twist.

Why now? Three letters: institutional FOMO. With BlackRock's ETF inflows hitting $25B last quarter and Grayscale's GBTC trading at 12% premium, even Jamie Dimon's team can't ignore the fee potential.

The catch? Expect Byzantine compliance checks. This is JPMorgan—they'll probably require 200% collateral and a blood sample.

Bottom line: When banks start lending against crypto, the 'wild west' narrative dies. The real question—will clients trust a Too-Big-To-Fail bank with their private keys?