JPMorgan is planning to expand its JPM Coin dollar deposit token to the Ethereum blockchain, aiming to make the digital payment instrument accessible to a wider group of institutional clients, Bloomberg reported.
The U.S.’s largest bank is preparing to move the token, which launched nearly a year ago, beyond Base, the layer-2 network developed by Coinbase Global (COIN).
Ethereum’s deeper liquidity and established institutional presence were key factors behind the decision, Emma Landriault, head of Kinexys Labs within JPMorgan’s blockchain division Kinexys, told Bloomberg.
JPMorgan had outlined plans to broaden JPM Coin’s availability beyond Base in January, when it identified the Canton Network as another potential destination. Expanding to additional blockchains could help crypto businesses use the token for on-chain payments and enable financial institutions to settle trades or support tokenized assets with digital representations of bank deposits, Landriault said.
The bank has not announced a launch date for JPM Coin on Ethereum. Landriault did not provide a timeline, and JPMorgan had not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment by publication time.
Tokenization transforms real-world assets and financial instruments into digital tokens recorded on distributed ledgers. Supporters say the process can make financial transactions more efficient by speeding up settlement, enabling faster transfers and reducing friction associated with traditional payment networks.
Banks are increasingly exploring tokenized financial products, although many initiatives continue to rely on private blockchain systems. In the United States, JPMorgan, Citi (C), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and more than a dozen other lenders are planning a shared network for tokenized deposits.
JPMorgan’s Kinexys private blockchain currently processes more than $7 billion in daily transactions. That is modest compared with the bank’s wider payments operation, which handles about $12 trillion per day. Meanwhile, DeFiLlama data indicates that nearly $50 billion in crypto assets are held in Ethereum-based applications.
JPMorgan is also involved in efforts to develop blockchain infrastructure for international finance. It is among more than 30 banks working with Swift, the interbank messaging provider, to define the design and governance of a blockchain-based ledger.
Swift said in July that 17 banks, including Citi and Wells Fargo, were preparing to test live transactions on the proposed system. JPMorgan was not included in the list of participating institutions announced for that pilot.
