J.P. Morgan: From Shorting Bitcoin to Getting Involved with BlackRock

Remember when Jamie Dimon screamed that Bitcoin was ‘a scam that would eventually explode’ and that ‘if he were the government, he would shut down Bitcoin’ and that the only ‘real uses’ for cryptocurrencies were crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and tax avoidance?

As it turns out, the bank that has already paid $40 billion in fines, penalties and legal settlements as a recidivist criminal enterprise has decided to double down on crime by its own definition…

Today we learned that not one, but two giant asset management firms – Invesco as well as BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and the Federal Reserve’s own trading platform – have named JPMorgan as their authorized participant, i.e., the intermediary firm through which the ETFs can be made available in the first place by converting bitcoin into cash, and vice versa.

In addition to JPMorgan, BlackRock also named Jane Street Capital – the fund company where Sam Bankman-Fried learned everything he knows about high-frequency trading in the bitcoin market to become the greatest cryptocurrency criminal of all time – as the broker-dealer responsible for the conversion of bitcoin into cash when its spot bitcoin ETFs were approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to steer cash in and out.

According to an amended prospectus filed with the SEC late Friday, JPMorgan will be an authorized participant in the BlackRock iShares Spot Bitcoin ETF and the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF. As such, they will be responsible for handling the creation and redemption of baskets of shares in the ETFs, as well as cash transfers between the fund managers.

Or, as we say ….

In addition to BlackRock, Wall Street ETF giants such as Invesco, Franklin Templeton, and Fidelity have also filed for spot bitcoin ETFs, and Grayscale Investments has filed to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. All of these applications are expected to be approved in the coming weeks.

Incidentally, this is likely due to JPMorgan Chase’s insistence that the SEC require bitcoin ETFs to use a cash-creation redemption model rather than physical redemptions. According to Bloomberg reporter Eric Balchunas, the SEC’s preference for a cash model for spot bitcoin ETFs is because they want to minimize the number of intermediaries that have access to the actual bitcoins in the redemption and distribution process.

They don’t like brokers as intermediaries that touch bitcoin, Balchunas noted. Many intend to create unregistered subsidiaries to replace actual broker-dealers, but the SEC doesn’t want that, the ETF analyst said.

The SEC wants to “close the loop a little bit more,” Balchunas said, adding that he’s also heard regulators are concerned about money laundering.

If only BlackRock and Coinbase were handling the actual bitcoins, the bitcoins you have would be a little bit more controllable, he says. They just want a more closed system with fewer intermediaries touching the actual bitcoins.

Of course, if JPMorgan Chase Bank (which has been fined $40 billion over the past 15 years) assisted in money laundering, then all is well.

While JPMorgan has been named AP (broker-dealer) for two of the ETFs so far, Jane Street Capital appears to be the AP for almost all of these ETFs, which means that Jane Street Capital will be doing the front-running of all the ETF orders for years to come, if Sam Bankman-Fried) stays at Jane Street Capital, he’ll probably become a trillionaire, and it’s perfectly legal.

As for stupid peasants like the one below, who just a few weeks ago gleefully proclaimed that even bank CEOs were on her side in her stupid anti-cryptocurrency campaign ……Whatsminer

The joke’s on Pocahontas…

Pocahontas is an animated movie produced and released by Walt Disney in 1995. It first had a June 16, 1995 release date. Pocahontas (Pocahontas, or Pocahontas in the movie)’s real name is Matoaka , and Pocahontas is actually her nickname, meaning playful and mischievous.

Also according to Reuters, as of late Friday afternoon, BlackRock Asset Management, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Bitwise Investment Advisers, Invesco Ltd. Investments, and the joint venture between Ark Investments and 21Shares have all filed new paperwork with regulators detailing their respective arrangements with market makers to ensure trading liquidity and efficiency.

Issuers that complete their filings by the revised year-end filing deadline may be able to launch the Ark/21Shares ETFs by Jan. 10, the date by which the SEC must approve or reject the Ark/21Shares ETFs, people familiar with the filing process said.

Given the confidential nature of the discussions, the SEC could notify issuers as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday that they have been cleared to launch the product next week, the sources said.https://www.Hominers.com/

Bitcoin’s price has more than doubled so far this year to just under $42,000, in part due to expectations that the SEC will soon approve a spot bitcoin ETF.

If regulators choose to approve a spot bitcoin ETF, they could notify issuers as early as next week.

Valkyrie also disclosed in the filing that it will impose a 0.80 percent management fee on the ETFs if the SEC approves them early in the new year. ark and 21Shares have previously revealed that they are proposing to charge the same fee on their own ETFs.

The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund is expected to be the cheapest fund, charging just 0.39%.

Invesco announced plans to charge 0.59%, but added in its filing that it will waive fees for six months for the first $5 billion in assets attracted to the new fund.

A total of 14 asset managers are currently hoping to finally receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot bitcoin ETF. Over the past decade, U.S. securities regulators have repeatedly refused to issue such products, citing concerns about market manipulation and the inability of potential issuers to protect investors. So far, the only approved cryptocurrency ETFs are linked to bitcoin and ethereum futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Grayscale Investments and Hashdex, which are both looking to convert existing products into spot bitcoin ETFs, filed their own updates earlier this month.

The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.