The two megabanks, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan have registered a passive bitcoin trust with the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday. According to SEC filings, they have separately partnered with NYDIG for the trusts. 

Wells Fargo has partnering with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) which is a leading technology and financial services firm. Wells will get an certain percentage of sales through two of its leading subsidiaries: Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. JPMorgan is partnering with NYDIG as well. JP Morgon will also receive a percentage of sales through subsidiaries.None of the funds had completed any sales at the time of filings. 

A trio of filings was reported on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Two filings are in the name of J.P. Morgan Securities and another filing is in the name of Wells Fargo Clearing Services. All three filings will offer "pooled investment fund interests" from NYDIG.

JPMorgan had hinted investors in the start of the year to consider adding Bitcoin to their portfolio. They said that saying almost 1% of allocations their portfolio could “achieve any efficiency gain in the overall risk-adjusted returns.” J.P. Morgan has also recently been hiring for blockchain related positions in its Onyx unit. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had given permission to banks to hold cryptocurrencies last July. Since then banks have begun to explore and consider crypto operations.

NYDIG currently has assets worth $6 billion under custody and it continues to expand. They announced a variety of new partnerships in quarter 2 of this year. These new partnerships have enabled easy access of Bitcoin in the banking space.

Rushali Das

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA