JPMorgan has reportedly expanded its blockchain-based payment system, JPM Coin, to include euro-denominated transactions for corporate clients.
JPM Coin went live with euro transactions on Wednesday, Basak Toprak, JPMorgan’s head of Coin Systems for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Bloomberg News. German tech giant Siemens conducted the first euro payment on the platform, according to Toprak.
The JPM Coin payment system was initially launched in 2019 to move U.S. dollars. The euro expansion comes as JPM Coin has processed over $300 billion in transactions to date. While that number is significant, it is still a tiny part of JPMorgan’s overall payments business, which processes nearly $10 trillion daily.
JPM Coin is a permissioned blockchain-based payment system and allows JPMorgan’s wholesale clients, such as large multinational corporations, to transfer funds between their JPMorgan accounts worldwide and make payments to other bank customers using blockchain technology instead of traditional payment methods. JPM Coin operates beyond standard banking hours and is faster, thus helping clients to initiate payments just before they are due.
“There are cost benefits to paying at the right time,” Toprak told Bloomberg. “This could mean they could earn more interest income on their deposits.”
Traditional financial giants are increasingly dipping their toes into the crypto sector. Last week, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, filed for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Earlier this week, EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange supported by major financial players Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, went live, offering trading in four cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash.
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