JP Morgan Expects Increased Blockchain Usage in Finance and Plans to Provide Services

JP Morgan Expects Increased Blockchain Usage in Finance and Plans to Provide Services

JP Morgan expects blockchain use in the finance segment to increase as the crypto sector grows. The global investment bank says, “We want to make sure that we cannot only support that but also be ready to provide related services.”

JP Morgan’s Blockchain Plans

JP Morgan Chase & Co foresees increased blockchain usage in traditional finance and is getting ready to offer related services, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

The global investment bank has been using a blockchain for collateral settlements, allowing its clients to use a wider range of assets as collateral and trade beyond market operating hours. The first such transaction took place on May 20.

Ben Challice, JP Morgan’s global head of trading services, was quoted as saying:

"What we’ve achieved is the friction-less transfer of collateral assets on an instantaneous basis."

In addition to derivatives trading, repo trading, and securities lending, JP Morgan said it plans to expand tokenised collaterals to include equities, fixed income, and other asset types.

Tyrone Lobban, head of JP Morgan’s Blockchain Launch and Onyx Digital Assets, explained that over time the bank’s blockchain could potentially be a bridge connecting institutional investors with decentralised finance (defi) platforms in the crypto economy.

He continued that as the crypto sector grows:

"There will be a growing set of financial activities that are likely to happen on the public blockchain, so we want to make sure that we not only support that but also be ready to provide related services."

In February, JP Morgan opened an “Onyx by J.P. Morgan” lounge in the metaverse. The bank estimated the metaverse to be “a trillion-dollar revenue opportunity across advertising, social commerce, digital events, hardware, and developer/creator monetisation.”

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, while wary of bitcoin and crypto, is bullish about blockchain. He said in April: “Decentralised finance and blockchain are real, new technologies that can be deployed in both public and private fashion, permission or not.”

This week, JP Morgan’s strategists published a bullish report on bitcoin and cryptocurrency, stating that there is a “significant upside” to the price of BTC. The bank has also replaced real estate with cryptocurrencies as its “preferred alternative asset class.”