JP Morgan set to loosen crypto rules allowing Bitcoin as collateral
JP Morgan is set to shake up its crypto rules with plans to allow institutional clients to use Bitcoin and Ether holdings as lending collateral.
The new scheme will work with a third party to safeguard the crypto assets and follows the banking giant’s delving deeper into the world of digital assets.
The US lender had previously laid out plans to allow clients financing against crypto exchange-traded-funds (ETF) – a form of investment fund that trades on traditional stock exchanges and tracks the price of one or more cryptocurrencies.
JP Morgan declined to comment.
America’s most influential banker and JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon has softened his stance on crypto over the last year.
Dimon told JP Morgan’s investor conference in May: “I don’t think we should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke.
“I defend your right to buy Bitcoin, go at it”.
Bitcoin soars under Trump
Bitcoin has rallied this year after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, where he promised to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”.
The coin surged past $120,000 in June 2025, buoyed on by a bullish government. However, the asset has taken a beat in October, trading around $110,000 after trade tensions and weak liquidity hit digital assets.
The US House of Representatives passed the the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in June, which is expected to provide a regulatory framework for a market worth almost $3.8tn.
Trump has referred to himself as the “crypto president” as part of plans to take a global lead on digital currency.
Whilst Wall Street began with a much more conservative outlook, JP Morgan’s latest suspected move, as reported by Bloomberg, follows the US banking sector expanding into digital currency.
Morgan Stanley has set out plans to allow access to top crypto coins on its retail trading platform for the first half of next year and new regulatory changes have permitted the likes of Blackrock to accept Bitcoin and swap them for ETF holdings.