Aaron Iovine, a former Celsius executive, has joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. as executive director of digital asset regulatory policy. The announcement comes only days after the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, called cryptocurrencies “frauds and decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
Aaron Iovine, who was the head of policy and regulatory affairs at the now-defunct crypto lender Celsius, has been appointed as JPMorgan’s executive director of digital assets regulatory policy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Iovine left Celsius in September after an eight-month tenure. The appointment comes just days after CEO Jamie Dimon publicly referred to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
Iovine will likely collaborate with Sharon Yang’s regulatory affairs team at JPMorgan. At the U.S. Treasury Department, Yang previously held the position of deputy assistant secretary for global financial markets. The CEO of JPMorgan has been outspoken about how he feels about cryptocurrencies, calling himself a “major skeptic of crypto tokens.”
Before Mt. Gox went bankrupt, Dimon originally expressed his worries about cryptocurrencies, calling Bitcoin “a terrible store of value” that “can be replicated over and over.” Years ago, Dimon referred to Bitcoin as a “fraud” and “fool’s gold,” yet the bank later introduced JPM Coin, a stablecoin tethered to the dollar. Additionally, JPMorgan permits clients of its wealth management services to purchase cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic.
A position for a digital asset counsel was also advertised by JPMorgan, this time with its corporate and investment bank in New York. The chosen candidate will be responsible for a variety of tasks, such as offering regulatory and compliance advice, providing day-to-day business support, and dealing with paperwork difficulties relating to the ban’s activities on digital assets.
As a result of the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the loss of the dollar peg for Terra’s UST stablecoin, the troubled cryptocurrency lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. Celsius is one of several well-known firms that have been forced into bankruptcy. Soon after, Voyager Capital and Three Arrows Capital did the same.
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