JPMorgan to bring JPM Coin to Ethereum, citing liquidity

JPMorgan plans to bring JPM Coin, the token representing dollar deposits at the bank, to Ethereum, expanding the almost year-old token beyond Base, the layer-2 blockchain built by Coinbase. Bloomberg reported the plan on Oct. 19, citing Emma Landriault, head of Kinexys Labs at the bank's blockchain division Kinexys; CoinDesk also reported it.

The bank chose Ethereum because the network offers more liquidity than rival networks and is already used by institutional clients, Landriault told Bloomberg. Broadening availability is meant to serve crypto firms that want to make blockchain payments and financial firms that need a digital token to settle trades or back tokenized assets, she said.

Landriault did not say when JPM Coin would become available on Ethereum. CoinDesk reported the bank had not responded to its request for details by publication time.

JPMorgan flagged a move outside Base in January, saying it was planning to take the token to the Canton Network.

Kinexys, JPMorgan's private blockchain network, handles more than $7 billion a day, against $12 trillion a day across the bank's payments business — about 0.06% of the total. Almost $50 billion of crypto assets are locked in Ethereum-based applications, according to DeFiLlama, which is the context for the liquidity argument the bank is making.

Banks have embraced tokenization but mostly away from public networks, according to CoinDesk. In the U.S., JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, along with more than a dozen other banks, have plans to start a shared network for tokenized deposits.

Abroad, JPMorgan is among more than 30 banks helping Swift define the features and governance of its blockchain-based ledger. In July, Swift said 17 banks, including Citi and Wells Fargo, were preparing to pilot live transactions on it. JPMorgan was not on that list.