Key Takeaways
JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to launch the JPMD token on the Base blockchain, representing dollar deposits.
The JPMD token will initially be available to JPMorgan’s institutional clients and could offer a scalable alternative to stablecoins.
JPMorgan Chase, the US’s largest bank, will launch a pilot program for JPMD, a token representing dollar deposits, expanding the bank’s presence in the digital-asset sector, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The bank plans to transfer JPMD from its digital wallet to Coinbase Global, the largest US crypto exchange, in the coming days, according to Naveen Mallela, global co-head of the bank’s blockchain division Kinexys by JPMorgan.
The token will be issued and transferred on Base, a layer 2 network backed by Coinbase, and denominated in dollars. Coinbase’s institutional clients will be able to use the deposit tokens for transactions. JPMorgan plans to expand the pilot to other users and currencies after several months, subject to regulatory approval.
The deposit tokens could offer advantages over stablecoins, including potential interest-bearing features and deposit insurance coverage in the future, according to Mallela.
JPMorgan’s existing Kinexys Digital Payments network processes more than $2 billion in daily transactions, following a ten-fold increase in volume last year. This represents a small portion of the approximately $10 trillion in daily transactions handled by JPMorgan’s payments division.
While JPMD is designed for public blockchains, it will remain a permissioned token available only to JPMorgan institutional clients.