Chase & Co., whose chief executive recently expressed skepticism of cryptocurrency, has hired a crypto policy head from bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network LLC.
Aaron Iovine
has joined the bank as executive director of digital assets regulatory policy, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan said on Wednesday. Mr. Iovine served as head of policy and regulatory affairs at Celsius between February and September of this year.
Before Celsius, he worked for more than two years at Cross River Bank, a small New Jersey-based community bank that caters to fintech companies. Mr. Iovine was its head of policy and regulatory affairs when he left the bank.
On his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Iovine said he has “focused on developing policies that foster responsible innovation while emphasizing consumer protection and regulatory oversight” and has worked on issues related to crypto licensing, anti-money-laundering requirements and cybersecurity standards.
Bloomberg Law first reported the hire Wednesday, saying Mr. Iovine joined JPMorgan this week.
Mr. Iovine and representatives for Celsius didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
His appointment to the newly-created position, amid increasing regulatory interest in crypto, comes one month after JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive
Jamie Dimon
told lawmakers he was suspicious of the tokens.
“I’m a major skeptic of crypto tokens, which you call currency, like bitcoin,” Mr. Dimon said in response to a question on what kept the bank from being more active in this space. “They are decentralized Ponzi schemes, and the notion that it’s good for anybody is unbelievable,” he said at a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
Mr. Dimon added that billions of dollars are lost each year through ransomware, money-laundering and theft in a crypto market with no regulation, according to a transcript of the hearing. “It’s dangerous,” he said.
The chief executive, however, underscored that he wasn’t a skeptic on the potential of blockchain technology, ledger technology and decentralized finance, an umbrella term for financial services offered on public blockchains.
Besides Mr. Iovine’s appointment, JPMorgan also is looking for a digital asset counsel for its corporate and investment bank’s payments legal team to help advise on regulatory and compliance issues, according to a job posting on the JPMorgan website.
Celsius, until recently one of the biggest crypto lenders, filed for bankruptcy in July after halting withdrawals for about a month after digital currency prices collapsed. Founded in 2017 by entrepreneur
Alex Mashinsky,
Celsius pitched itself as being less risky and providing better returns than banks. But it overextended itself by offering high yields to crypto depositors and making large loans backed by scant collateral, leaving itself little cushion in the event of a market downturn.
It was valued at more than $3 billion last fall in its last venture round.
Write to Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com
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