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In an interview with Bloomberg Wealth published on Tuesday, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management Division, discussed her firm’s approach to cryptocurrencies. Erdoes revealed a lot of its asset and wealth management clients think cryptocurrency is an asset class and they want to invest in it.
With $3.4 trillion in client assets, JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management division is among the world’s largest investment firms and private banks,
Erdoes, who has been with the company for over 20 years, was asked about a possible scenario of a client coming to them and saying that they wanted to invest in cryptocurrency. The exact question posed was: “Do you say you shouldn’t do it? do you facilitate it? or are you still evolving your position?”
The CEO replied by first commenting about blockchain technology. “Blockchain technology … it’s very real and it’s changing all of the ways that we digitally interact in the different financial markets,” she opined.
She then proceeded to talk about cryptocurrencies. “Digital currencies are new, and in general digital currencies are being debated as to whether they are an asset class or not,” she described, elaborating:
“A lot of our clients say that’s an asset class and I want to invest. Our job is to help them to put their money where they want to invest.”
“It’s a very personal thing,” Erdoes added.
“We don’t have bitcoin as an asset class per se, and time will tell whether it has a store of value. But the volatility that you see in it today, it just has to play itself out over time.”
JPMorgan’s Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon, noted something similar in May when he said people better “stay away” from cryptocurrency. But, he added, “That does not mean the clients don’t want it … I don’t tell people how to spend their money, regardless of how I might personally feel about something.”
In April, JPMorgan said that bitcoin’s declining price volatility at the time has made the cryptocurrency more appealing to institutional investors that seek low-correlation assets to diversify their investment portfolios. During the same time, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink stated that cryptocurrency “could become great asset class.”
However since then, Bitcoin’s value has dropped significantly and is currently trading at around $30,000.