According to a Bloomberg Law report, JPMorgan, the world’s largest investment bank, hired a new executive director of crypto policy, Aaron Iovine, who held a similar position at crypto lending firm Celcius, which is now a bankrupt company.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan, has said cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin decentralized Ponzi schemes. But this time, he did not stop the company from hiring a new head of digital assets regulatory policy, Aaron Iovine, who worked at the bankrupt Celcius firm.
According to Aaron’s LinkedIn profile, he worked at Celsius this year between February and September. Before this job at Celcius, Aaron worked at Cross River, a crypto-friendly financial services company based in New Jersey, for almost three years.
Now, Aaron will work at JPMorgan regulatory affairs group, which is headed by Sharon Yang. Yang is the one who previously worked at the Treasury Department as deputy assistant secretary for international financial markets. Aaron will not find any difficulty working at JPMorgan because he is working under such an experienced man.
Before appointing Aaron as director of crypto policy, CEO Jamie Dimon criticized cryptocurrencies last month. At that time, Dimo said that he was a major skeptic of crypto tokens like Bitcoin, and he compared the new asset class to decentralized Ponzi schemes. Now, he turned his attention to crypto, and it’s not the first time he did this.
Previously, Dimon has called Bitcoin a fraud and fool’s gold many times but in 2019, JPMorgan launched its own JPM Coin. JPMorgan also allows its wealth management clients to buy into Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic. The bank also encouraged clients to buy shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
This month, JPMorgan also announced an opening for a digital assets counsel position with its corporate and investment bank in New York, which shows how much they are interested in digital currencies.
