Strategy’s recent bitcoin sales and its official monetization program have investors worried, but JPMorgan analysts see a bigger risk to bitcoin: blockchain adoption that revolves around public networks and the tokens that rely on them.
In a report led by Director General Nikolaos Panigirzoglou and I mentioned by mass, The bank argued that the strategy is not the main structural threat to the asset.
Company It sold 3,588 bitcoins for $216 million in early July to cover the preferred dividend, its largest sale ever, and such sales can add bursts of selling pressure. Analysts said the deeper concern is where CodingPayments and settlement are completed.
If this activity settles on permissioned rails rather than public chains, the cryptocurrency ecosystem could face a structural downgrade — less liquidity, weaker capital flows, and slower on-chain volume — a drag that could hit Bitcoin in time.
Organizations have turned to permissioned blockchains, which provide privacy, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering controls, governance, productivity, legal accountability and regulatory certainty.
This preference, according to JPMorgan, creates a competitive problem for public networks like Ethereum.
Analysts cited the Bank for International Settlements, which has warned against permissionless public chains of systemic financial infrastructure, pushing instead for “unified ledgers” that keep token central bank funds, bank deposits and assets within regulated walls.
Coding as a real-world use case
Banks build on these specifications. Token deposits – digital claims on bank balances, backed by banking regulation and deposit insurance – stand out as the clearest case. If such deposits spread into the non-convertible forms favored by regulators, they could crowd out stablecoins in institutional payments.
SWIFT’s blockchain project and central bank digital currency efforts such as the digital euro and digital yuan would further this regulated path.
Real-world asset tokenization tells a similar story. The market is worth roughly $50 billion, mostly on Ethereum at the moment, although analysts read this as an early test rather than a stable structure.
As adoption matures, issuance, custody, and settlement can move to private infrastructure, leaving public chains for distribution and interoperability. DTCC and Securitize show this pattern in motion, and analysts have questioned whether public settlement is the most efficient model for regulated firms, given the net deferred settlement capital savings.
What could prove JPMorgan wrong?
The law of clarityEven if it passes this year, it may not lift the threat; It could encourage deposit tokens issued by banks at the expense of public stablecoins.
Analysts have pointed to three ways their thesis could collapse: a hybrid model where both types of chains are important, stronger adoption of stablecoins under friendly rules, or Bitcoin retaining its role as a stablecoin. “digital gold” And hedge against the reduction whatever happens in the rest of the cryptocurrencies.
