Skip to main content

Think crypto’s dead? JPMorgan to offer first cryptocurrency backed by a U.S. bank

Image used with permission by copyright holder

JPMorgan Chase is rolling out a trial in the next few months of the first cryptocurrency backed by a major United States bank. Dubbed “JPM Coin,” the cryptocurrency will be used by big business across the world to “instantly settle payments between clients,” according to a report from CNBC.

Recommended Videos

Currently, only large clients of JPMorgan Chase will be able to cash in on the new cryptocurrency, so it is out of reach for the average consumer. These big money clients typically include major broker-dealers who have passed regulatory checks. JPM Coin will also only be redeemable for one U.S. dollar, so its value will be linked to the dollar, unlike Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies. To receive JPM Coins, a Chase client will first have to deposit dollars at the institution, and once a transaction is completed the coins will then be withdrawn and converted back to a corresponding amount of dollars.

“So anything that currently exists in the world, as that moves onto the blockchain, this would be the payment leg for that transaction,” said Umar Farooq, head of J.P. Morgan’s blockchain projects to CNBC. “The applications are frankly quite endless; anything where you have a distributed ledger which involves corporations or institutions can use this.”

Farooq went on to explain to CNBC that JPM Coin can be used in three methods, including for international payments and securities transactions. With international payments, large corporations will no longer have to use wire transfers when moving big sums of money. The transfer process can be sped up and payments can happen right away, without the need to wait. Secondly, with securities transactions, JPM Coin can be used by investors to settle the transactions right away, again cutting out the need to use wire services.

JPMorgan Chase might be taking a big bet with JPM Coin, but it still holds significant potential in changing business across the world. There’s hope that large corporations can use JPM Coin in treasury services. “The final use would be for huge corporations that use J.P Morgan’s treasury services business to replace the dollars they hold in subsidiaries across the world,” reports CNBC.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Toyota announces site for its first U.S. battery plant
2019 Toyota Corolla hatchback

Toyota is doubling down on its electric vehicle ambitions with the building of a $1.3 billion battery production plant in North Carolina, its first such facility in the U.S.

The Japanese automaker announced the plan on Monday, December 6, revealing that it will build the plant in the Greensboro-Randolph area about 80 miles northeast of Charlotte.

Read more
Watch the unique Volocopter take first public flight in the U.S.
this 18 rotor passenger drone may fly at the paris olympics volocopter volocity test flight

Urban mobility company Volocopter recently sent its extraordinary 18-rotor electric aircraft skyward in what it claimed to be the first-ever public-crewed test flight of a fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi in the U.S. You can watch it take to the air in the video below.

 

Read more
Nvidia keeps hiding its bad cards, and that’s a problem
Jensen Huang addressing an audience.

Nvidia's shenanigans surrounding its RTX 50-series graphics cards seem almost never ending. Beyond driver issues, missing ROPs, melting power cables, and supply issues, it seems steadfast in its plans to hide the graphics cards that we all know are going to underwhelm. It didn't send out review samples for the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, and now it's restricting reviewers from testing the upcoming RTX 5060 by not releasing any compatible drivers until launch day.

Nvidia has been shady and underhanded with its handling of the entire RTX 50 series, and it only seems to be getting worse.

Read more