Strike CEO Jack Mallers says JPMorgan Chase abruptly terminated his personal bank accounts in September without offering any explanation, a move that has revived industry fears over politically motivated “debanking” of crypto executives. Key Takeaways:

• Strike CEO Jack Mallers says JPMorgan closed his accounts without explanation.
• Chase cited unspecified “concerning activity” under the Bank Secrecy Act.
• The incident has reignited debate over “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank. It was bizarre. My dad has been a private client there for 30+ years. Every time I asked them why, they said the same thing: ‘We aren’t allowed to tell you,’” Mallers wrote on X.

Chase Cites “Concerning Activity” in Strike CEO Account Closure

• He shared a letter from the bank citing unspecified “concerning activity” detected during routine monitoring.
• The notice pointed to obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act and warned the bank “may not be able to open new accounts” for him in the future.
• The incident comes just weeks after former President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting financial institutions from debanking individuals or companies solely for engaging in crypto-related activity.
• JPMorgan’s actions have led some industry figures to question whether what many dubbed “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” an alleged Biden-era effort to isolate crypto firms from the banking system — has actually ended.
• Bo Hines, formerly head of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets and now a strategic advisor to Tether, was quick to criticize the bank.
• “Hey Chase… you guys know Operation Choke Point is over, right? Just checking,” he wrote on X.
• Mallers has a history of public clashes with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has frequently criticized Bitcoin.
• In a Yahoo Finance interview last year, Mallers brushed off Dimon’s comments, saying, “What do I think about Jeffrey Epstein’s banker being concerned that a distributed, decentralized, open public money could potentially be used for bad things, sitting on a ski resort in Davos? I don’t really care.”
• For years, crypto companies have alleged informal pressure from US regulators pushing banks to avoid digital-asset clients, a claim the Biden administration has denied.
• The term Operation Chokepoint 2.0 references the Obama-era Department of Justice initiative that pushed banks to restrict services to “high-risk” industries such as payday lenders and firearms dealers.

Banks Cite Risk, AML Rules in Defense

• This issue of “de-banking” has been a longstanding complaint among conservative groups, which argue that their accounts and donations are often restricted or terminated without clear justification.
• Crypto firms have also raised alarm over what they see as unofficial pressure from regulators that has pushed banks to quietly cut ties with blockchain startups, particularly since the collapse of crypto-friendly institutions like Silvergate and Signature Bank.
• Banks, meanwhile, have defended these decisions as risk-based, citing compliance with anti-money-laundering regulations and federal scrutiny of emerging sectors like digital assets.

They have pointed to existing regulatory frameworks that make onboarding crypto clients especially difficult, with heightened know-your-customer and transaction monitoring expectations.

#Strike #JPMorgan#Jucom #cryptocurrency #blockchain $BTC/USDT $ETH/USDT $JU/USDT

The backlash against financial services company JP Morgan from the Bitcoin (BTC) community and supporters of BTC treasury company Strategy continued to swell on Sunday as calls to “boycott” JP Morgan grew.

• The anger from the Bitcoin community followed news that the MSCI, formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International, an index company that sets criteria for index inclusion, is likely to exclude crypto treasury companies from its indexes in January 2026.
• JP Morgan shared the MSCI news in a research note. “I just pulled $20 million from Chase and suing them for credit card malfeasance,” real estate investor and Bitcoin advocate Grant Cardone said in response to a call to boycott the financial services giant.
• “Crash JP Morgan and buy Strategy and BTC,” Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser said, as the online boycott movement gained steam.

The exclusion of crypto treasury companies from stock indexes could trigger an automatic sell-off of their shares from funds and asset managers that are mandated to buy specific types of financial instruments, and could negatively impact crypto markets.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor breaks his silence and responds to MSCI

• Strategy entered the Nasdaq 100, a stock market index of the 100 largest companies by market capitalization on the tech-focused stock exchange, in December 2024
• This allowed Strategy to reap the benefits of passive capital flows from funds and investors holding the Nasdaq 100.
• Strategy founder Michael Saylor responded to the proposed MSCI policy change on Friday, saying, “Strategy is not a fund, not a trust, and not a holding company.”
• “Funds and trusts passively hold assets. Holding companies sit on investments. We create, structure, issue, and operate,” Saylor said, adding that Strategy is a “Bitcoin-backed structured finance company.”
• The proposed MSCI listing criteria change would force any treasury company with 50% or more of its balance sheet in crypto to lose its index status.
• These companies would then face one of two choices: reduce crypto holdings to be below the threshold to qualify for index inclusion, or lose the passive capital flows from the market indexes. A sudden sell-off from crypto treasury companies impacted by the proposed MSCI change could force digital asset prices down, according to analysts. #Strategy #Bitcoin #Jucom #JPMorgan #cryptocurrency $BTC/USDT $JU/USDT $ETH/USDT

JPMorgan analysts said Stripe is positioning itself to lead what they described as “twin revolutions in intelligence and money movement,” forecasting the company could tap into a $350 billion-plus market opportunity by the end of the decade.

The report, published Thursday by analysts Jon Hacunda, Lula Sheena, and Celal Sipahi, highlighted Stripe’s growing role in both AI-powered commerce and digital-asset infrastructure.

The $107 billion fintech firm processes more than $1.4 trillion in payments annually across 195 countries and turned a profit last year, with net revenue climbing 28% year-over-year to about $5.1 billion.

JPMorgan described Stripe as “a beneficiary of borderless financial services” and said its early traction with AI startups gives it a structural advantage as "agentic commerce" scales.

Stripe has also made inroads into the crypto and stablecoin sectors though acquisitions of Bridge, a stablecoin orchestration platform, and Privy, a crypto-wallet provider. The company is also incubating Tempo, a Layer-1 blockchain built for high-throughput payments in partnership with Paradigm.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison has described Tempo as “the payments-oriented L1, optimized for real-world financial-services applications.” Last week, the network revealed it had raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation.

JPMorgan said those initiatives put Stripe in a position to benefit as AI agents, stablecoins, and programmable money become integrated into global commerce.

Still, the analysts noted risks tied to enterprise expansion, unbundling, and regulatory exposure, especially around stablecoin oversight in the U.S. and MiCA rules in Europe.

#cryptocurrency #blockchain #Jucom #JPMorgan #AI

• On October 30, according to information from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) , the world's leading investment bank JPMorgan Chase has officially Token (digitized through Token) a private investment fund on its exclusive blockchain platform.
• This is the first time JPMorgan has put private investment assets on its own blockchain system, and this move opens the first phase in the plan to comprehensively deploy the fund tokenization platform of this giant financial group.
• According to a representative of JPMorgan Chase, the digitization of this investment fund is not only a technological experiment, but also a strategic step to help high-net-worth individual investors (high-net-worth clients) access alternative assets - which were previously limited to large investment funds or organizations.
• By converting these assets into digital Token , investors can buy and sell more flexibly, more transparently and reduce barriers to entry compared to traditional investment methods.

#cryptocurrency #blockchain #JPMorgan #Tokenize #Jucom

• Alibaba’s global business-to-business platform is moving to streamline cross-border payments by using tokenized versions of major currencies, part of a broader shift toward blockchain-based settlement in global commerce.
• Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com, told CNBC that the platform plans to begin using tokenized deposits backed by fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar and euro. The technology, which it will build in partnership with JPMorgan, is designed to speed up transactions and reduce the number of intermediaries needed for international payments.
• In today’s cross-border trade, a U.S. buyer sending dollars to a Chinese supplier may see funds routed through several banks and undergo multiple currency conversions, adding both time and cost. With tokenized currency, a digital version of that dollar could be transferred directly over a blockchain-based system, bypassing the intermediaries.
• Alibaba.com will use JPMorgan’s blockchain-based JPMD infrastructure, a system designed to move tokenized deposits between institutional clients. Unlike stablecoins, which are typically issued by non-banks and backed by assets like treasuries, tokenized deposits sit on a regulated bank’s balance sheet.

Zhang said the company is also exploring the possibility of adopting stablecoins in the future, but will first focus on bank-issued digital tokens to ensure regulatory and operational clarity.

#Alibaba #JPMorgan #Payments #Jucom #cryptocurrency $BTC/USDT $ETH/USDT $JU/USDT

• Welcome to US Crypto News Morning Briefing—a morning newsletter summarizing the most important crypto developments of the day ahead.
• Get your coffees ready because JPMorgan just showed off Wall Street’s shift from spot ETFs to complex Bitcoin Derivative designed around the halving cycle. What you read today could be a hint at a new approach to trading BTC, amid a profound shift in how institutions plan to approach the halving cycle from 2026-2028.

JPMorgan Introduces New Derivative Product for Bitcoin

• JPMorgan has filed for a new structured note linked to BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF . It offers double-digit fixed returns if BTC hits predetermined targets, but investors could lose their entire Capital if the ETF falls more than 30%.
• The proposed note, revealed in a recent regulatory filing, is designed based on Bitcoin's four-year halving cycle . The structure offers investors a fixed return of 16% if IBIT hits the bank's price target by the end of 2026, and more than 50% return if it hits the target in 2028.
• However, the offer comes with a big caveat: if the ETF falls more than 30% at any point before maturity, investors could lose their entire Capital .

“The Spot ETF saga is over, Wall Street institutions are starting to offer Derivative to everyone,” writes analyst AB Kuai Dong.

Indeed, the model resembles Derivative trading in that the profits do not come from holding Bitcoin or the ETF. Instead, they come from a contract whose payout depends on the performance of the ETF. Clients never own IBIT or BTC, they would ideally trade with wins and losses based on Bitcoin price performance . On this point, JPMorgan writes a contract as follows:

• If IBIT reaches X in 2026 → you get 16%
• If you reach X by 2028 → you get more than 50%
• If it drops 30% → you lose your Capital

JPMorgan made it clear that these notes “do not guarantee repayment of Capital ,” with losses commensurate with the ETF’s decline once the 30% barrier is breache.

This trade, with its increased upside and risk of total loss, places the note in the high-return/high-volatility category that institutional exchanges typically reserve for sophisticated clients.

Furthermore, it uses barriers and auto-call triggers, the same mechanism applied in equity-linked Derivative products.

The product's unique mechanisms, which differ from what Spot ETFs offer, include:

• Auto call in 2026 = Derivative feature
• 30% Downside Barrier = Derivative Style Risk Protection
• Increased benefit (1.5x) = Derivative leverage

This note offers a 1.5x gain, a textbook Derivative benefit built into traditional banking products. Losing 100% if IBIT falls beyond the 30% barrier is akin to holding a long Call Option that expires worthless when the condition breaks.

Halving Cycle and Product Fit for JPMorgan

Meanwhile, the timing was deliberately chosen as history shows that Bitcoin tends to enter a deep bear market around two years after each halving event .

The last halving took place in April 2024 , with the next contraction expected in 2026, followed by a sharp rebound in 2028, the year of the next halving.

This pattern closely matches the design of the note:

• 2026: If IBIT hits JPMorgan's target early, note automatically calls, paying a fixed 16%.
• 2026–2028: If IBIT remains below target, the note remains active, providing 1.5x leverage benefit with no cap if BTC rises in 2028.
• By 2028: Investors only recover Capital if IBIT avoids a 30% decline.

The launch shows that the era of Spot ETFs is giving way to structured products designed for asymmetric returns, leverage and risk exposure.

Derivative and its potential

• These instruments mirror the Derivative products that traditional banks have used for decades in areas like stocks, commodities and foreign exchange, now moving into the digital asset space.
• For investors, the appeal lies in the potential for increased returns without directly holding volatile BTC .
• However, the risks are equally significant. Bitcoin has experienced 70%-85% price drops historically, and breaking the 30% barrier is not uncommon even in mild bear markets.
• JPMorgan acknowledged this in the filing, warning that investors “could lose all” of Capital if the underlying ETF breaks that threshold.

The note approval process will determine how quickly it reaches institutional trading desks, but what does its design signal:

• More Wall Street-developed products,
• Many yield-seeking structures involve Bitcoin ETFs, and
• More traditional Capital is entering crypto through Derivative rather than spot instruments.

As the market approaches the mid-cycle stage of 2026, demand for yield protection and leverage products is likely to increase, making JPMorgan’s move an early look at the next wave of institutional Bitcoin investment.

Byte-Sized Alpha

Here is a summary of today's US crypto news:

• Fake delivery man steals $11 million in crypto from Sam Altman's ex's home .
• The Fed in Crypto? Trump's Search for Chairman Takes a Strange Turn
• The strategy argues that even if Bitcoin drops to $25,000 , it won't break their balance sheet.
• A bearish setup could reverse the Bitcoin Dip theory.
• Trump Pardons CZ—Now Binance Faces $1 Billion Terrorism Charges .
• Grayscale's Dogecoin Spot ETF fell short of analysts' targets on opening day.
• BSV financier behind Wirecard? New investigation revives $2.2 billion mystery surrounding Calvin Ayre .

#Bitcoin #BitcoinHalving #Jucom #JPMorgan#cryptocurrency $BTC/USDT $JU/USDT $ETH/USDT