JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday announced The appointment of Aaron Iovine, an ex-CEO of Celsius Network, as the new head of digital assets regulatory policies. This job was just created as per a JPMorgan spokesperson.
JPMorgan will have Mr. Iovine as its former head of regulation and policy for the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network Ltd. He will assist JPMorgan in navigating regulatory matters for digital asset trading.
Iovine will work with JPMorgan’s regulatory affairs group headed by Sharon Yang, who in the past served as a deputy assistant secretary for international financial markets at the Treasury Department.
Iovine was hired by Celsius in February from Cross River Bank, a regional lender that supports digital assets. Upon Iovine’s departure, Celsius recently hired Benjamin Melnicki from Robinhood Markets Inc. as its head of cryptocurrency compliance and regulation.
Iovine, an experienced attorney, worked almost three years for Cross River, where, according to his LinkedIn profile. He led policy and regulatory affairs. Two months after the New York-based crypto-lending platform filed bankruptcy, he left Celsius.
The announcement comes less than a month after the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon told lawmakers that cryptocurrencies are “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
In congressional testimony on September 22, Dimon referred to himself as “a major skeptic” on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Despite his dislike for cryptos, Dimon is a strong advocate of them. embraces DeFi and Blockchain are both real and new technologies that can apply in both the public and private sectors.
The hiring reflects the company’s commitment to compliance, as well as its recognition that firms require seasoned teams to deal with cryptocurrency regulatory issues. The rise in popularity of cryptocurrency trading has led regulators to increase their scrutiny of this sector. Some companies have begun to pay more attention to their compliance processes as a result.
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