- JPMorgan has been granted a trademark for a sprawling crypto wallet platform
- The trademark includes features merchants as well as users, such as crypto payments and swaps
- JPMorgan made the filing in June 2020, right as it was flipping bullish on crypto
JPMorgan has been granted a trademark for a crypto wallet, showing a further push into the crypto arena for the bank whose CEO hates crypto. The trademark, which was filed back in July 2020 and was approved last week, appears to be a wide-ranging offering, including crypto payment processing, virtual currency transfer and exchange, and other financial services. It marks another example of the bank coming full circle on crypto, and shows that their confidence in crypto was carefully timed.
Crypto Payments for Individuals and Merchants
The new wallet, provisionally called the J.P. Morgan Wallet seems to be more than just a storage method, with the description in the trademark filing including things like “creating an on-line virtual environment for payment processing and the exchange of multiple currencies in multiple languages”, “online bill presentment and payment”, “point-of-sale payment processing”, and “merchant services”.
This illustrates that JPMorgan in fact plans to build an entire platform for individuals, merchants and more.
JPMorgan Turned Bullish When it Filed the Trademark
JPMorgan has always been something of a curious case when it comes to crypto. Its CEO Jamie Dimon has said on many occasions that Bitcoin is going to zero, which was echoed by the bank’s public statements on the matter for many years.
However, the thinking on crypto began to change around June 2020 when the bank claimed that crypto had passed its first “stress test” after rebounding from the March 2020 crash…around a month before it filed its wallet trademark. Since then, the bank has been ultra bullish on crypto, calling for a $146,000 Bitcoin valuation and that institutional investors may end up putting 1% of their portfolios into Bitcoin. This was followed by the bank launching its own platform to allow crypto exposure to clients.
At the time of the sea change we asked if JPMorgan’s about turn was some kind of sinister plot against crypto, but the real reason is much simpler – it wants a piece of the action.
