The attitude of the giants has drastically changed: Standard Chartered fired the first shot in spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while JPMorgan has shifted from a 'mortal enemy' to a 'believer'.
As traditional financial giants collectively turn their gaze towards the cryptocurrency market, a silent contest has already begun. Standard Chartered and JPMorgan, two institutions that occupy key positions in the global financial system, have entered the crypto space with drastically different postures. Every move they make reshapes the industry landscape and defines the integration path between traditional finance and digital assets through their strategic tussle.
Entry posture: the role differentiation from 'icebreaker' to 'turning point'.
Standard Chartered's entry carries a distinct 'pioneer' mark. On July 15, it officially launched Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading services through its UK branch, boldly claiming to be the 'first global systemically important bank (G-SIB) to provide deliverable cryptocurrency spot trading'. This move is highly symbolic — as a top bank that is 'too big to fail', Standard Chartered has directly broken the 'silence taboo' of G-SIBs regarding cryptocurrency spot trading, using compliance as a shield to pave a convenient path for institutional clients 'from traditional foreign exchange interfaces directly to crypto assets'. Its posture is clear: using 'secure, compliant, and scalable' services to address institutional concerns about the crypto market, seizing the first-mover advantage in 'compliant spot trading'.
JPMorgan's entry is full of 'reversal tension'. As a stubborn opponent who once dismissed Bitcoin as a 'scam' and 'pet rock', CEO Jamie Dimon's change in attitude itself is a media storm. From threatening in 2021 to 'fire employees trading Bitcoin' to planning a 'full commitment to cryptocurrency' by 2025, JPMorgan's turnaround carries a clear 'passivity' — when Goldman Sachs and BlackRock profit immensely through crypto ETFs and derivatives, it has no choice but to drop its prejudice, building a crypto service network through increasing Bitcoin ETF holdings (such as BlackRock's IBIT reaching 263,000 shares), expanding its blockchain department Kinexys (processing an average of $2 billion in transactions daily), and testing asset tokenization as a 'covert layout'. This contradictory posture of 'self-preservation' and 'deep participation' is both a compromise to market demand and a strategic response to pioneers like Standard Chartered.
The differences in their entry postures have already laid the groundwork for their competition: Standard Chartered seizes the moral high ground with 'compliance breakthroughs', while JPMorgan compensates for the time lag with a 'reactive' layout, competing in the arena of 'who can define the standards for institutional crypto services'.
Service strategy: the path of confrontation between 'security card' and 'balancing technique'.
In the core strategies for serving institutional clients, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan exhibit stark differences. This difference essentially reflects their varying assessments of 'risk and reward', and is the core battleground of their competition.
Standard Chartered takes 'security and compliance' as its core weapon. It is well aware that institutional clients' greatest concern about the crypto market is 'uncertainty' — fearing regulatory risks due to non-compliance, fearing asset losses due to platform security issues, and fearing complicated operations that are difficult to integrate into the existing system. To this end, Standard Chartered has designed targeted service solutions: institutional clients can buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly through a familiar foreign exchange trading interface without the need to learn a new system; it repeatedly emphasizes the 'deliverable spot' attribute to ensure the authenticity and traceability of trading targets; and it has announced plans to launch non-deliverable forwards (NDF) services in advance, providing institutions with tools to hedge risks. This 'spot + derivatives' combination has a clear goal: to create a 'full package of institutional crypto services', allowing clients to address trading and risk management needs in a 'one-stop' manner, thus binding core institutional resources.
JPMorgan employs a strategy of 'balancing distance'. On one hand, it allows clients to purchase Bitcoin and deeply participate in the crypto market through increasing ETF holdings and expanding the JPM Coin settlement network — its blockchain department Kinexys has surpassed small and medium-sized crypto exchanges in trading volume, with crypto asset exposure soaring from $1 million to $16.3 million, indicating aggressive action; on the other hand, it deliberately maintains a 'safe distance', clearly stating that it 'does not provide custody services'. CEO Jamie Dimon even emphasizes that 'individuals will never buy Bitcoin'. This strategy of 'participating while isolating' not only aims to avoid direct risks (such as compliance pressure from asset custody), but also to compete for the 'right to set rules' — by integrating crypto assets into the traditional financial clearing and settlement systems, gradually weakening their 'decentralized' attributes, making digital assets 'new nodes' in the existing financial network rather than 'disruptors'.
The confrontation of the two strategies essentially reflects the contest over the 'positioning of crypto assets': Standard Chartered wants cryptocurrencies to become a 'new asset class compliant with regulations', while JPMorgan aims to make them a 'subsidiary of the traditional financial system'. This difference in positioning will directly influence the future preferences of institutional clients.
Driving logic: the dual thrust of demand torrents and competitive anxiety.
The underlying logic of this contest is a shared response from both institutions to 'client demand' and 'market competition', though their priorities and emphases differ.
The core of Standard Chartered's actions is 'driven by client demands'. Its CEO Bill Winters candidly states that 'the acceleration of client demand leaves us no choice'. Against the backdrop of the gradual maturation of the cryptocurrency market, the allocation needs of institutional clients have shifted from 'optional' to 'essential' — enterprises need diversified assets to hedge against inflation, asset management companies need new targets to attract funds, and large investors need to position themselves in potential high-growth areas. As a top bank serving global institutions, if Standard Chartered cannot meet these needs, it risks losing client trust. Therefore, its entry feels more like 'going with the flow': securing those clients most sensitive to 'compliance qualifications' (such as multinational corporations and sovereign funds) with its first-mover advantage during the demand explosion.
JPMorgan's shift carries a strong sense of 'competitive anxiety'. When BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF attracted $54.7 billion in the first quarter, when Goldman Sachs' crypto derivatives business surged by 300% year-on-year, and when Standard Chartered set compliance benchmarks as the 'first G-SIB', JPMorgan knew: if it continued to hold its 'anti-crypto' stance, it would effectively hand over a trillion-dollar market. Data confirms this anxiety: its holdings in BlackRock's IBIT fund have rapidly expanded, and trading volume in its blockchain department continues to rise. These 'honest' layouts are essentially defensive counterattacks against competitors — aimed at avoiding market elimination while exploring paths that better align with its interests outside the 'compliance framework' defined by Standard Chartered.
The dual drivers of demand and competition have transformed the contest between the two giants from 'whether to engage' to 'how to win', and their strategic choices are subtly shaping the 'institutional service rules' of cryptocurrency.
Future focus: the ultimate competition for the derivatives battlefield and rule-setting authority.
Spot trading is merely the starting point of the contest; the future battlefield will focus on more complex areas — derivative services and the authority to set industry rules.
Standard Chartered has clearly signaled: spot trading is just the 'first step'; it will subsequently launch non-deliverable forwards (NDF) services. This tool is critical for institutions — by locking in future trading prices, it can effectively hedge the price volatility risk of cryptocurrencies, serving as 'key infrastructure' to attract long-term allocations from large institutions. Standard Chartered's intention is clear: to establish client trust through spot trading, then deepen the binding with derivative services, ultimately becoming the 'preferred partner' for institutional crypto risk management.
JPMorgan's layout is characterized by 'systematic ambition'. It not only increases ETF holdings and expands its settlement network but also tests the waters of 'real asset tokenization' through partnerships with Chainlink and Ondo Finance, attempting to combine traditional assets (such as bonds and commodities) with blockchain to create a 'crypto + traditional' hybrid financial ecosystem. This layout directly targets the authority to set industry rules — when trading and clearing of cryptocurrencies and traditional assets are completed through JPMorgan's system, it can become a 'hub' connecting the two worlds, even leading the definition of compliance standards.
Moreover, the competition for 'client segments' between the two institutions will intensify. Standard Chartered is focusing on European institutions sensitive to 'compliance qualifications', while JPMorgan is digging deep into high-net-worth clients and asset management giants on Wall Street. Where their service areas overlap, a more direct battle for clients will unfold.
This contest is smoke-free yet determines the 'evolutionary direction' of the cryptocurrency market: will it become a 'parallel system' independent of traditional finance, or will it be integrated into the existing framework as a 'new asset class'? Every move made by Standard Chartered and JPMorgan is a vote towards this answer. For the entire industry, the competition among the giants may not be a zero-sum game — their rivalry will drive the crypto market towards greater regulation and maturity, but the final rules will inevitably be written by the victors.#币圈现状 
