JPMorgan Introduces USD Deposit Token on Coinbase’s Base Blockchain

U.S. banking giant JPMorgan has announced the pilot of a permissioned USD deposit token called JPMD on Base, the layer 2 Ethereum network built by listed exchange Coinbase (COIN).

Earlier this week, the bank filed a trademark application for a crypto-focused platform named JPMD, designed to to offer services such as trading, exchange, transfer, and payment services for digital assets, as well as issuance of digital assets.

The institution-focused JPMD, an alternative to stablecoins for the bank’s clients, marks the first deployment of JPMorgan’s Kinexys distributed ledger technology studio on a public blockchain, according to a press release.

Banks and other enterprise players are crowding into the stablecoin space ahead of soon-to-land rules around dollar-pegged tokens in the U.S. JPMorgan garnered lots of attention for its so-called JPM Coin, a token for settling the cash leg of trades on its private blockchain, then called Onyx Digital Assets.

“We are thrilled to see one of the world’s most prominent banks come onchain,” said Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base and VP of Engineering at Coinbase. “Base offers sub-second, sub-cent, 24/7 settlement, which makes fund transfers between J.P. Morgan institutional clients nearly instant. Coinbase is a proud J.P. Morgan institutional client, and this pilot combines the credibility of both J.P. Morgan and Base to help bring institutional money into a more global economy.”