JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) will allow all of its wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds, according to a Business Insider report. The financial giant told its financial advisers to take buy and sell orders from its wealth management clients for 5 crypto asset products effective July 19.
Of the products to be allowed, 4 are offered by Grayscale Investments which runs the popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC), and one is from Osprey Funds. Although JPMorgan is allowing its advisers to execute only "unsolicited" crypto trades or buy and sell on behalf of clients at their request, they cannot recommend products. The big bank's move reportedly applies to all clients seeking investment advice, including ultra-high net worth clients and individuals whose assets are managed by JPMorgan Advisors, as well as retail customers who use the Chase trading app. JPMorgan did not comment on the report.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) is supporting a new crypto trading platform called Pure Digital, following in the steps of fellow financial giant State Street (NYSS: STT), the Financial Times reported Wednesday. The New York-based bank will join a consortium backing the new institutional crypto trading platform is slated to debut very soon. State Street first said in April it is providing the infrastructure for Pure Digital, and both banks have said they intend to eventually start using the platform for trading. BNY Mellon and State Street join 4 other unidentified firms that are backing the new platform, and trading will begin with a Bitcoin (BTC) trade "within a week," according to Pure Digital co-founder Campbell Adams. BNY Mellon and State Street are also embracing the broader crypto industry, after they unveiled the formation of crypto custody divisions this year.
OpenSea announced Tuesday it has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round that boosted its valuation to $1.5 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the latest round, with participation from Coatue, CAA, Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Kevin Durant, and Ashton Kutcher. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) marketplace startup OpenSea exploded in popularity in the past year amid the NFT craze, and it has enjoyed an expanding user base expanding and skyrocketing total sales volume. The firm $160 million in NFT sales in June and is on track for a record July too. The startup is transitioning to the Polygon (MATIC) scaling protocol in order to eventually reduce and eliminate Ethereum's (ETH) high gas transaction fees, and it also aims to integrate with Dapper Labs' Flow blockchain and Tezos (XTZ) in the future.
Crypto prices bounced to $1.40 trillion this week. For the majors, Ether, Bitcoin, and Polkadot (DOT) led the gains, while Binance Coin (BNB) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were THORChain (RUNE), down 18%, Mdex (MDX), down 17%, and KuCoin Token (KCS), down 10%. The biggest gainers were Axie Infinity (AXS), up a whopping 132%, Telcoin (TEL), up 48%, and THETA, up 39%. Next week traders will watch if Bitcoin can edge past $35,000 again.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.