Reports out today discuss an interview between Co-President of JP Morgan, Daniel Pinto and US news website, CNBC. To give you some context, JP Morgan Chase & Co are an American based investment banking firm. They are headquartered in New York and are considered to be one of the biggest and most influential investment banking firms in the world. JPM, the JP Morgan stock currently trades on the New York Stock Exchange at around $113.00, overall JP Morgan are estimated to have a revenue of around $99.62 Billion. With this in mind, if you hadn’t already guessed it, JP Morgan are huge. In an interview with CNBC, Pinto discusses Bitcoin, here’s a bit more on what he had to say. If you wish to see the full interview yourself, you can do so, here- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/jp-morgans-daniel-pinto-talks-bitcoin-amazon-big-stock-downturn.html When asked about how JP Morgan see a future with Bitcoin, Pinto suggests that cryptocurrencies are not something JP Morgan have written off totally, Pinto says:

“I think the concept is valid, you have many central banks looking into. The tokenization of the economy, for me, is real. Cryptocurrencies are real but not in the current form.”

This sounds familiar right? Many firms are taking this approach, indeed yes they see potential in cryptocurrencies but believe that regulation needs to be met, this is a common approach for those seeking cryptocurrency adoption. The take home message here however is good, essentially, JP Morgan haven’t written off crypto, just yet. As Pinto states:

“JP Morgan are looking into that space. I have no doubt that in one way or another, the technology will play a role. [Regarding bitcoin], you cannot have something where the business proposition is to be anonymous and to be the currency for unknown activities. That will have a very short life, because people will stop believing in it, or the regulators will kill it. I think the concept is valid, you have many central banks looking into.”

The full interview with Pinto does of course discuss many other economic factors, we are of course mostly interested in his views on crypto. Overall, things do seem to be positive, but lets face it, with firms such as Goldman Sachs already dipping their toes into the cryptocurrency industry, JP Morgan really need to be seen to at least be open to the idea, if it is indeed something they wish to tap into in the future. Hopefully, many of their current clients will already be a part of the crypto-revolution and therefore, given cryptocurrencies regulated future, we could very well see JP Morgan onboard the crypto-train sooner, rather than later. If you have time, check out CNBC’s full article, it offers some great insight from a well respected financial figurehead.