have found a surprisingly warm welcome in an unlikely place: JPMorgan Chase and certain other “too big to fail” banks.
“Systemically important banks are picking up more crypto business as they see the growth trajectory of the industry,” says Chris Burniske, a partner at Placeholder, a venture-capital firm specializing in blockchain tech. “The failure of their smaller peers represents a moment of opportunity for them to grow their own business lines.”
The willingness of the big commercial banks to accept money from crypto firms represents a departure from the generally crypto-phobic attitude on Wall Street in recent months — particularly after the collapse of FTX led many institutions to distance themselves from digital currency. In January, a trio of U.S. banking regulatorsto the financial industry about the risks of dealing with cryptocurrencies, leading banks to minimize their relationships with digital-currency companies.
“They are all being more open to banking us,” says Yossi Hasson, co-founder and CEO of Metaversal, a company that invests in NFTs and raised $50 million last year, though he declined to specify where he had applied for new accounts. “Before, you just wouldn’t get through compliance,” he adds. “And now, magically, you might.”
🤔traditional banks asked to hold new currencies