JPMorgan warns cheap money era is over as Americans miss 22,700% rally

A thousand dollars dropped into Bitcoin roughly ten years ago would be worth about $228,000 today. That’s a 22,700% return, the kind of number that makes you want to build a time machine and have a very serious conversation with your past self. But here’s the thing: almost nobody actually rode that wave. According to JPMorgan’s own data, just 17% of active Chase checking account holders have ever transferred funds to a crypto platform between January 2017 and May 2025. The other 83% watched from the sidelines, or more likely, didn’t watch at all. The end of easy money changes everything JPMorgan, led by CEO Jamie Dimon, is sounding the alarm that the era of cheap borrowing is finished. The bank’s analysts project persistently higher interest rates going forward, effectively closing the chapter on the low-rate environment that propped up asset prices from the 2008 financial crisis through the pandemic spending spree of 2020. JPMorgan has flagged that rates could spike toward 8% or more, driven by high government deficits and elevated spending. Those early warnings started surfacing back in 2024, and the bank isn’t backing down from that outlook. Nearly 50% of Americans are currently...