Over half of the 25 largest US banks are actually weighing or rolling out crypto-related merchandise.
An Aug. 8 standing chart shared by River that tracks the giants throughout two lanes, custody and buying and selling.
The snapshot exhibits a number of companies shifting from “not but” to “exploring,” “introduced,” or restricted entry for high-net-worth shoppers, indicating that digital asset choices are steadily coming into mainstream wealth and capital-markets pipelines.
Concrete strikes since early 2024 assist clarify the shift. Morgan Stanley thought-about letting its 15,000 brokers advocate spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to shoppers, engaged on guardrails for suitability and allocations, an indication of increasing distribution past unsolicited orders.
Extra lately, Charles Schwab’s chief govt mentioned that the brokerage plans so as to add Bitcoin and Ethereum buying and selling for purchasers, citing robust demand to view all holdings on a single platform.
PNC went additional on the banking aspect, deciding on Coinbase in order that wealth and asset administration prospects can commerce crypto straight by their PNC accounts fairly than a separate venue.
Custody and tokenization are advancing in parallel. State Road signaled plans to launch a stablecoin and tokenized deposits to enhance settlement, adopted by efforts to tokenize bonds and cash market shares.
BNY Mellon has been surfacing repeatedly in filings and product builds, together with administrator and cash-custodian roles in ETF paperwork. Moreover, the financial institution appeared as custodian for reserves tied to Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin extra lately.
Citi has explored Solana for next-generation monetary companies and tokenization pilots, and reportedly thought-about custody companies in early 2025.
JPMorgan is on a spree of crypto-related initiatives in 2025. In June, the financial institution initiated a pilot challenge for a tokenized deposit token issued on Base, desiring to facilitate instantaneous greenback transfers.
Moreover, the financial institution’s CEO Jamie Dimon revealed they are going to take a look at stablecoin companies together with the tokenized deposit token pilot. Notably, Dimon didn’t take again his criticism of crypto.
Final week, JPMorgan allowed its prospects to entry Coinbase to make direct crypto purchases with out leaving their dashboard.
Taken collectively, these developments align with River’s chart, indicating that many high banks should not opening the floodgates. Nonetheless, they’re making ready channels, akin to ETF entry, restricted buying and selling for wealth shoppers, third-party integrations, custody mandates, and tokenization pilots.
Entry stays uneven and infrequently restricted to high-net-worth or advisory shoppers, but the course of journey is evident.
The most important US banks are shifting their focus from monitoring crypto to operational planning and selective rollouts, with current initiatives serving as proof factors {that a} broader product set is coming into focus.
