Crypto market eyes sustained gains as JPMorgan weighs trading entry

The crypto market held steady today, Dec. 22, after a report said JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, was considering entering the industry with trading services.

Bitcoin (BTC) price jumped to $90,000, while the cumulative market capitalization of all coins tracked by CoinGecko rose by 2% to $3.12 billion. Some of the top gainers were tokens like Audiera, Terra, Monad, and Midnight.

According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan, which has over  $8.2 trillion in assets across its banking and asset management divisions, is considering offering crypto trading to institutional investors. Some of the products being considered are spot and derivatives, which companies like Coinbase, Kraken, Aster, and Robinhood now dominate.

Bloomberg noted that the efforts are being driven by demand from institutional investors in JPMorgan’s platform. 

JPMorgan joins other large companies that have embraced the crypto industry recently. Vanguard, a company that has resisted the industry for years, started offering crypto ETFs to its clients recently, and Charles Schwab will start offering crypto trading and investment solutions to its clients in January.

SoFi, another large company popular among young people, is also testing its crypto trading solutions ahead to the relaunch in for the first quarter of the year. Other companies offering these services include Standard Chartered, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Goldman Sachs. BlackRock, the largest asset management company, has also become the largest provider of crypto ETFs.

JPMorgan has been involved in blockchain for some time, and last week, the company launched its first tokenized money market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund on Ethereum (ETH).

Other reasons why the crypto market is going up 

The crypto market is also rising as traders anticipate the Santa Claus rally, a tendency for stocks and other assets to rally ahead of Christmas Day.

Indeed, top global indices continued to rise today, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 up over 0.25%. Other global indices, such as the German DAX, Japanese Nikkei 225, and British FTSE 100, were in the green.

Meanwhile, the crypto market is responding to the ongoing recovery in futures open interest, a sign that investors are using leverage in their trading. The combined open interest rose 3% to $131 billion, while short liquidations jumped 75% to over $197 million.