JPMorgan Chase [NYSE: JPM] is accelerating its move into the digital asset space across multiple fronts, with the world’s largest bank exploring institutional cryptocurrency trading services, scaling its blockchain infrastructure at a dramatic pace, and watching its CEO publicly acknowledge competitive pressure from crypto-native rivals for the first time.

The bank’s markets division is assessing what spot and derivatives cryptocurrency trading products it could offer to institutional clients, including hedge funds and pension managers, according to a Bloomberg report, with the plans still in early stages and contingent on sufficient client demand materialising for specific products.

The exploration of institutional crypto trading builds on a string of concrete blockchain steps JPMorgan has already taken, including the launch of its JPMD deposit token on Coinbase’s Base public blockchain, a product that represents tokenised dollar deposits and allows institutional clients to settle transactions in seconds, around the clock, rather than through conventional banking infrastructure.

JPMD differs from conventional stablecoins in that it is a bank-issued deposit token, representing actual cash already held within JPMorgan’s banking system rather than a reserve-backed digital dollar issued by a separate entity, a structure designed to satisfy Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requirements while still delivering blockchain efficiency to institutional counterparties.

The commercial and investment banking division’s co-CEOs disclosed in a recent investor report that transactions on JPMorgan’s blockchain-based products have grown thirtyfold since 2023, a figure that underscores the degree to which what began as pilot projects are now handling meaningful real-world volumes.

CEO Jamie Dimon, who famously called Bitcoin a fraud in 2017 and spent years publicly dismissing crypto, has shifted his stance markedly over the past 18 months, declaring himself a “believer in stablecoins” in July 2024 and stating at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in October that “blockchain is real” and predicted it would replace elements of the existing financial system.

In his 2026 annual shareholder letter, Dimon went further, warning that a whole new set of competitors is emerging based on blockchain, including stablecoins, smart contracts, and tokenisation, and that these firms now operate as direct competitors to JPMorgan across payments, trading, and asset management, adding bluntly: “We need to roll out our own blockchain technology.”

The bank’s Kinexys blockchain division, which oversees JPM Coin and related products, has been the primary vehicle for this buildout, with the division having already completed trials involving Mastercard, Coinbase, and B2C2 ahead of the JPMD institutional launch.

JPMorgan’s accelerating crypto posture places it alongside a broader Wall Street movement, with Goldman Sachs already operating a crypto derivatives desk serving hedge funds and asset managers, Morgan Stanley planning to offer crypto trading on its E*Trade platform through a partnership with Zerohash in 2026, and Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster confirming the $11.6 trillion firm will begin offering Bitcoin trading this year, noting that 20% of Schwab clients already own crypto.

The macro backdrop is providing additional momentum, with JPMorgan’s own research division projecting that crypto markets could receive a meaningful lift in the second half of 2026 if the CLARITY Act, a sweeping digital asset market structure bill, passes Congress by midyear, with the bank writing in a research note that passage would reshape market structure by providing regulatory clarity, ending regulation by enforcement, promoting tokenisation, and facilitating greater institutional participation.