What happened
JPMorgan's research team told clients it expects bitcoin to outperform both equities and gold going forward, CryptoPotato reported Saturday. The note represents one of the most direct institutional endorsements of BTC from a bulge-bracket bank whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, has publicly trashed the asset since at least 2017. Dimon famously called bitcoin a fraud in September of that year, threatened to fire any trader caught touching it, and as recently as 2023 told US lawmakers he would 'close it down' if he could.
The research call does not come with Dimon's signature, but it does come with the firm's name attached, which is what matters to the allocators reading it. It also follows a steady drumbeat of JPMorgan analysts, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, who have grown more constructive on BTC as a portfolio diversifier over the past year.
Why it matters
The pivot isn't just a vibe shift. It's a signal that the sell-side desks whose research feeds pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth managers are now modelling bitcoin alongside gold and the S&P as a legitimate macro asset. That changes the kind of money that shows up on the bid.
When Fidelity and BlackRock entered the spot ETF race in early 2024, the thesis was that institutional distribution would compress the asset's volatility and raise its floor over time. A JPMorgan outperform call feeds that same loop. The optics also matter: Dimon has been the most quoted bitcoin skeptic on Wall Street for the better part of a decade, and his own research team now carrying a bullish view undercuts the easiest 'the smart money doesn't want this' argument shorts have leaned on.