Financial technology middlemen reportedly sent investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase 1.89 billion data requests in the month of June.

In an internal company memo reviewed by CNBC, a JPMorgan systems employee noted that only 13% of those requests were initiated by a customer for transactions.

“Aggregators are accessing customer data multiple times daily, even when the customer is not actively using the app. These access requests are massively taxing our systems.”

An anonymous source with knowledge of the memo tells CNBC that the requests often involve helping fintech companies bolster their products or stop fraud.

Earlier this month, JPMorgan informed fintech companies such as PayPal, Venmo and Coinbase that they will need to begin paying to access their customers’ bank account information, a move that sparked controversy in the digital asset sector.

Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss claims the investment bank is attempting to sabotage fintech and crypto firms, accusing JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon of trying to wreck President Donald Trump’s attempts to embrace digital assets.

“This will bankrupt fintechs that help you link your bank accounts to crypto companies like Gemini, Coinbase, and Kraken so you can easily fund your account with fiat to buy Bitcoin and crypto…

Jamie Dimon and his cronies are trying to undercut President Trump’s mandate to make America the pro-innovation and the crypto capital of the world. We must fight back!”

Dimon, however, defended the fee proposal during the bank’s second-quarter earnings call.

“So, this is very important. So forget pricing for a second, we are in favor of the customer, but we think the customer has the right to if they want to share their information. What we ask people to do is, what do they – do they actually know what’s being shared? What is actually being shared? It shouldn’t be everything. It should be what their customer wants. It should have a time limit because some of these things went on for years. It should not be re-marketed or resold to third parties. And so, we’re kind of in favor of all that, done properly.

And then the payment, it just costs a lot of money to set up the APIs (application programming interfaces) and stuff like that to run the system’s protection. So, we just think it should be done and done right. And that’s the main part. It’s not like you can’t do it.”

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Bloomberg analysts have sharply increased the likelihood of U.S. regulators approving a new wave of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, pointing to a friendlier stance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Bloomberg senior ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart said on June 20 that they now see a “90% or higher” chance that a broad range of crypto ETFs will win regulatory approval.

Altcoin funds

The revised forecast follows what the pair described as constructive discussions between the SEC and asset managers seeking to expand beyond Bitcoin.

They also indicated that the SEC likely considers cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and Cardano to be commodities, a classification that generally places them outside the commission’s direct oversight as securities.

The surge in optimism comes after the SEC recently asked several issuers pursuing spot Solana ETFs to update their filings with clearer details on in-kind redemptions and whether staking would be allowed.

The move prompted some firms that had yet to file applications for Solana ETFs to fast-track their submissions last week.

The requested changes, submitted in mid-June, signal that the SEC is actively reviewing the structure and mechanics of these funds, further supporting expectations of eventual approval. The regulator intends to respond within 30 days, raising expectations of approval within the next four to five weeks.

ETF performance

Crypto ETFs are expected to become a mainstay of the financial industry after spot Bitcoin ETFs set records for capital inflows.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, trading under the ticker IBIT, surpassed $70 billion in assets earlier this month, less than a year after its launch. The product’s consistent daily inflows have made it one of the fastest-growing ETFs in U.S. history.

Despite this, similar products tracking Ethereum have faced slower uptake. While Ether ETFs launched last July, blockchain analytics show many investors remain at a loss compared to their entry price.

With momentum building, fund issuers including Franklin Templeton have filed proposals for ETFs tied to other crypto assets like XRP and Solana. These applications are now open for public feedback as the SEC weighs its next moves.

Though Balchunas and Seyffart expect approvals, they cautioned that final green lights and market debuts could still be several months away.

Mentioned in this article

The Lazarus Group has laundered stolen crypto from last week’s record-shattering Bybit hack through the exchange eXch, according to the blockchain research firm Elliptic.

Hackers looted nearly $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) and Lido Staked Ether (stETH) from Bybit on Friday.

The attack represented the largest crypto hack ever and possibly the biggest heist in world history.

Elliptic, pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT and other researchers have pinned the exploit on the Lazarus Group, a prolific North Korean cybercriminal outfit known for numerous high-profile hacks on major crypto platforms.

In a new analysis, Elliptic notes that Lazarus’ money-laundering process typically follows the same steps. First, the group exchanges any stolen tokens for a native blockchain asset like Ethereum, because ETH can’t be frozen by a central authority.

Subsequently, the cybercriminal outfit “layers” the stolen funds through multiple wallets, exchanges, cross-chain bridges and crypto mixers to obfuscate the transaction trail.

Elliptic says that Lazarus is currently in the middle of the second step.

“Within two hours of the theft, the stolen funds were sent to 50 different wallets, each holding approximately 10,000 ETH. These are now being systematically emptied – as of 1pm UTC on February 24, 14.5% of the stolen assets (now worth $195 million) have been moved from these wallets.

Once moved out of these wallets, the funds are being laundered through various services, including DEXs (decentralized exchanges), cross-chain bridges and centralized exchanges.

However, one service has emerged as a major and willing facilitator of this laundering. eXch is a cryptocurrency exchange, notable for allowing its users to swap cryptoassets anonymously. This has led them to being used to exchange hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets derived from criminal activity, including multiple thefts perpetrated by North Korea. Despite attempting to conceal this activity, our analysis shows that since the hack, crypto assets stolen from Bybit worth over $75 million have been exchanged using eXch. Despite direct requests from Bybit, eXch has refused to block this activity.”

Over the weekend, eXch took to the BitcoinTalk forum to deny claims it was laundering crypto for Lazarus, though it did cop to processing an “insignificant” portion of the stolen Bybit funds.

“1. eXch is NOT laundering money for Lazarus/DPRK (North Korea).

2. The insignificant portion of funds from the ByBit hack eventually entered our address 0xf1da173228fcf015f43f3ea15abbb51f0d8f1123 which was an isolated case and the only part processed by our exchange, fees from which we will be donated for the public good.

3. Any claims by ZachXBT and others on Twitter regarding transactions not related to 0xf1da173228fcf015f43f3ea15abbb51f0d8f1123 that are falsely attributed to eXch are a targeted FUD attack on our exchange.”

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou says the firm has restored a 1:1 backing on all client assets after the record-setting hack, and the Dubai-based exchange announced a full restoration of services on Saturday.

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