US-based JPMorgan Chase has rolled out JPM Coin (JPMD), a digital deposit token for institutional clients, as more banks scale their presence in the digital assets sector.
The digital coin comes as dollar deposits held at JPMorgan, supporting near-instant transfers leveraging Coinbase’s public blockchain, Base. This was reported by Bloomberg, which quoted Naveen Mallela, co-head of JPMorgan’s blockchain group Kinexys.
Instant, 24/7 payments
With this launch, JPMorgan Chase is set to be able to provide payments that settle almost immediately, anytime, 24/7, compared to previous capabilities, which could take days and be restricted to business hours. The official rollout comes after extensive trials involving companies such as Mastercard, Coinbase, and B2C2.
When it comes to development plans, JPMorgan intends to deploy the token on other blockchains and provide its clients’ users with access to JPM Coin. Additionally, the financial institution aims to expand the token to multiple currencies. However, at the time of writing, this initiative was still pending regulatory approval.
Furthermore, the coin is set to be accepted as collateral on Coinbase, underlining its expanding role in crypto markets. This project comes as part of JPMorgan’s blockchain objectives and follows a broader move conducted by global financial companies, including Citigroup, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank, and PayPal, which are also diving into digital tokens as they look to accelerate their development and minimise payment costs. Besides the aforementioned financial institutions, Bank of New York Mellon and HSBC are also working on creating similar deposit token solutions.
The launch of JPM Coin comes just a few weeks after JPMorgan Chase announced plans to enable institutional clients to utilise Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for loans. At that time, Bloomberg reported that the programme was set to launch by the end of 2025, allowing clients to pledge Bitcoin and Ethereum for secured loans, with a third-party custodian protecting the pledged tokens to ensure risk compliance.
