JPMorgan’s ‘JPM Coin’ Is Live, Execs Say

A major tech firm is about to start using JPM Coin in global payments, as the investment bank doubles down on its blockchain business.

AccessTimeIconOct 27, 2020 at 12:11 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 3:12 a.m. UTC

Investment banking giant JPMorgan is about to see the first commercial transactions with its own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin.

  • According to a report from CNBC Tuesday, Takis Georgakopoulos, JPMorgan global head of wholesale payments, said a major tech firm will use the token to make global payments starting this week.
  • As the bank sees blockchain technology becoming commercially viable, it has also created a business unit with around 100 employees, Onyx to house related projects, Georgakopoulos told CNBC.
  • “We are launching Onyx because we believe we are shifting to a period of commercialization of those technologies, moving from research and development to something that can become a real business,” the executive said in the report.
  • Christine Moy, blockchain lead at JPM, confirmed the reporting on Twitter:
  • JPMorgan is focusing on the wholesale payments business, where removing inefficiencies can save the banking industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year, Georgakopoulos added.
  • First revealed in February 2019, JPM started trials of JPM Coin last summer.
  • The token was designed to speed transactions, such as payments between firms or bond transactions.
  • It was built on Quorum, a private version of Ethereum developed by the bank but acquired by development firm ConsenSys this August.
  • CNBC also reported JPM's blockchain-based Interbank Information Network is rebranding as Liink and will soon launch as a way to validate payments before they are sent.
  • Umar Farooq, the CEO of Onyx, said the bank is also eyeing using blockchain to send digital versions of paper checks and save banks 75% of the costs currently needed to send and process these payments.

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