JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Photo credit: Mike Bloomberg | Flickr, under Creative Commons license

U.S. investment bank JPMorgan seems to have accepted crypto companies Coinbase and Gemini as its first set of crypto clients, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reports that JPMorgan has approved banking services for Coinbase and Gemini, two big cryptocurrency exchanges. According to the Journal, JPMorgan, which has long shied away from core crypto clients, has begun to provide cash-management and transaction processing services for the two exchanges.

JPMorgan, as well as other banking firms, have generally avoided providing banking services to crypto clients due in part to higher risks and volatility in the crypto sector. Although crypto-currency has proven to be useful in many cases, it’s also more prone to sketchy uses like money laundering and various forms of payment fraud and this has made banks generally avoid offering banking services to crypto clients. Banks are also generally subject to many more regulations than crypto firms, constituting a situation where hassles may arise if they offer services to crypto clients. JPMorgan seems to be breaking the barrier by now offering services to Coinbase and Gemini, although the Journal reports that its services don’t extend to bitcoin or other cryptocurrency-based transactions.

Coinbase and Gemini had to pass through a long vetting process before getting approved by JPMorgan, according to the Journal. Both crypto companies have actually registered with authorities as regulated entities, a condition that sets them apart from other crypto exchanges. They happen to fall under the regulation of multiple regulatory parties under the terms of their registrations.

For JPMorgan, a tie-up with Coinbase and Gemini seems to pave a way for a harmonious relationship with crypto firms, a contrast to what has long been a somewhat acerbic relationship between both. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has long been a critic of crypto-currency in general and even referred to Bitcoin as a “fraud” in the middle of its 2017 bubble. He, however, later retracted that statement but still noted his lack of interest in the crypto sector.