J.P. Morgan has added its first cryptocurrency exchange customers, CoinDesk has confirmed after sources told The Wall Street Journal the bank signed two popular regulated exchanges – Coinbase and Gemini.
The fact that both exchanges are regulated in the US was apparently a factor in the approvals, which still took a lengthy period of vetting, the WSJ said. Accounts for the two crypto firms were approved last month, the sources said, and are now in use.
In the US, banking services are hard to come by for any firms dealing with cryptocurrencies, which are viewed as high risk by the banking industry. Until now, exchanges and other firms working with digital assets have been served by a few crypto-friendly banking institutions such as Silvergate.
Gemini and Coinbase aren’t the first crypto clients: TokenSoft, a regulated transfer agent and software vendor for security token services, has had an account at the bank since 2017, CEO Mason Borda said on Twitter.
The WSJ sources said JPMorgan is now providing Coinbase and Gemini’s U.S. users with deposits and withdrawals via wire transfer and automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. It’s also helping the exchanges with cash management services, they said.