JPMorgan Chase is rolling out its cash-backed cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, on Coinbase’s layer 2 network, Base.
The investment bank will begin issuing JPM Coin to its institutional clients and expand the offering to more clients following regulatory approval, Naveen Mallela, the bank’s head of the blockchain division Kinexys, told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
“We think that stablecoins get a lot of buzz, for institutional clients, deposit-based products offer a compelling narrative,” she said. “These can be yield-bearing.”
JPM Coin is a deposit token, a tokenised representation of cash already held in the bank.
By turning those deposits into a token and adding them to a blockchain, investors can settle transactions in seconds every day of the week.
Base is Coinbase’s public blockchain built on Ethereum using developer tools, sitting behind another layer 2 network called Optimism. The network, like many layer 2 blockchains, draws security assurances from the widely decentralised Ethereum network while improving transaction speeds.
JPMorgan and Coinbase inked a new deal in July that would let banking clients directly link their accounts to the US-based crypto exchange.
“This has a massive impact on how the public views crypto and will play a major role helping the industry go mainstream,” Carlos Guzmán, an analyst at GSR, a crypto market maker, told DL News at that time.
JPMorgan’s crypto pivot
Though JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon has long been a critic of Bitcoin, the $888 billion investment bank has changed its tune over the last eight months.
In July, Dimon told investors that the bank would soon let its clients buy Bitcoin during the company’s annual investor day in May.
“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke,” he said. “I defend your right to buy bitcoin.”
Reports emerged in July that JPMorgan was also considering allowing clients to borrow against their crypto holdings.
In October, Kinexys, the bank’s blockchain division, launched a tokenisation tool called Kinexys Fund Flow that would provide all participants in the transaction process – distributors, fund managers, and transfer agents – with a real-time view of investor activity using tokenised funds.
The pivot comes at a time when the US is also warming to the crypto industry under President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has appointed several crypto-friendly agency heads and passed landmark legislation on stablecoins.
Industry has responded with a slew of high-profile public listings while investment into the niche has doubled since 2024.
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at [email protected].
