Banking Giants Wells Fargo and JPMorgan File for Bitcoin Funds

On Thursday, two of the bigger players in the financial sector, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan registered their respective passive Bitcoin funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Key takeaways:

• Both companies are working with New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) financial services firm, which is dedicated to Bitcoin, to bring cryptocurrency services to their respective users. NYDIG has filed for a Bitcoin ETF in February and is still awaiting a response from the SEC.
• The new cryptocurrency services will be passively managed, meaning that investments won’t be directly managed by a portfolio manager, but will instead automatically follow a market index without active management decisions.
• Wells Fargo thus confirmed earlier reports of the bank launching a service to provide cryptocurrency exposure to its wealthy clients.
• JPMorgan unveiled its first crypto service offering late in July. The bank gave its clients access to five investment options, four Grayscale products and one from Osprey Funds.
• The recent trend of big financial institutions providing cryptocurrency services is directly tied to last year’s decision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The new policy enabled big banks to hold Bitcoin and other digital currencies.