In response to this dilemma, several major US financial heavyweights sit on the sidelines as a growing number tread cautiously in the growing world of crypto assets.

“My personal advice to people: stay away,” said Jamie Dimon, Managing Director of JPMorgan Chase recently, before adding, “That doesn’t mean customers don’t want it.”

JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, is currently evaluating how it can help clients transact in cryptocurrency, Dimon said last month at the bank’s annual meeting.

Once something of an investment sideshow dominated by computer geeks, cryptocurrencies are garnering greater interest among mainstream investors after bitcoin’s price spikes in 2020 and early 2021.

On Thursday, the venerable giant State Street announced the creation of a new digital finance division.

On Wednesday, the head of e-commerce firm Interactive Brokers pledged to establish online cryptocurrency trading on the platform by the end of the summer.

Like rivals Charles Schwab and Fidelity, Interactive Brokers does not now offer bitcoin trading on its platform, although it does give clients the option of investing in certain assets that include cryptocurrencies or contracts at. term on bitcoins.

Investors who want to trade bitcoin can currently turn to Robinhood or cryptocurrency specialist Coinbase.

ForUsAll, a platform that manages retirement accounts for small businesses, on Monday announced an agreement with Coinbase that allows customers to invest up to five percent of their balances in cryptocurrencies.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley said in March that it would allow wealthier clients to invest in bitcoin funds, while Goldman Sachs recently created a dedicated cryptocurrency trading team.

The CEOs of Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America told a congressional hearing in late May that they approach the cryptocurrency landscape with caution.

Fidelity Investments, which created a digital assets division in 2018 to execute cryptocurrency transactions for hedge funds and other institutional investors, has filed documents with U.S. securities regulators for an exchange-traded fund ( ETF) bitcoin.

This move could potentially expand cryptocurrency investments to a wider range of individual investors.

Stricter rules to come?

Yet many financial players are reluctant to delve into an area of ​​investment associated with black markets that has sparked the interest of US and global regulators.

There is also remarkable volatility, with bitcoin starting in 2021 at around $ 30,000 and reaching $ 63,000 in April before falling back to $ 34,000 in June.

“Speculators and those suffering from FOMO (the ‘fear of running out’) will surely continue to flock to cryptos in the hopes of getting huge returns,” said Ian Gendler of research firm Value Line.

But Gendler urges clients to avoid cryptocurrency investments, citing the high risk and lack of tangible assets compared to investing in commodities or a business. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are also not backed by governments, he noted.

“Cryptocurrencies are only worth what the next investor is willing to pay,” he said.

Yet, many in finance don’t see cryptocurrency as a transitory phenomenon.

“We believe that bitcoin, and crypto assets more broadly, is a new emerging asset class that is likely to be here to stay,” said Chris Kuiper, vice president of CFRA Research.

The CFRA expects “large banks as well as small financial institutions to continue adopting them, especially as the infrastructure and legal / regulatory framework continues to develop,” Kuiper added.

The Basel Committee, which coordinates regulation between central banks, this week proposed new rules that would require banks to set aside capital for cryptocurrency investments.

Gary Gensler, the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, also said he wanted to strengthen protections for cryptocurrency investors, telling CNBC that these investors “don’t have all the protections they have on stock market or commodity futures market. ”