JP Morgan’s JPMD ‘Stablecoin’ Is Actually a Deposit Token on Base

JP Morgan Chase & Co. unveiled its plans to debut a so-called deposit token, JPMD, on Tuesday, just one day after a social media post ignited widespread speculation about the digital asset. 

The U.S. investment bank is expected to transfer an undisclosed amount of JPMD to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in the coming days, Naveen Mallela, global co-head of JP Morgan’s blockchain unit Kinexys, said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News. 

JP Morgan defines deposit tokens as “commercial bank money,” or “transferable tokens issued on a blockchain by a licensed depository institution which evidence a deposit claim against the issuer,” according to a Kinexys white paper. 

The tokens, under development since 2023, form part of a type of blockchain-based asset that can be used for payment settlement.

Decrypt reached out to JP Morgan for additional comment. The company’s share price fell 0.3% in Tuesday trading. 

The bank will issue its deposit token on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain launched by Coinbase. The transfer will be denominated in U.S. dollars. 

“Moving money should take seconds, not days,” Base said Tuesday in a statement on social media. “Commercial banking is coming on-chain.”

The token will be used in a pilot program for several months, according to Base. During that time, approved Coinbase institutional clients will have the ability to use JPMD for transactions.

Later, other users will have access to JPMD, and its currency denominations will be expanded, pending regulatory approval.

The announcement dispels widespread speculation that JPMD might have been a stablecoin—a rumor that gained traction across X on Monday. Crypto industry experts pointed to the asset’s initialism and details from JP Morgan’s filing on Sunday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as evidence the token could have been some sort of stablecoin. 

The rumors swirled as major financial institutions increasingly embrace stablecoins, and just ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s successful passage of stablecoin legislation through the U.S. Senate.

The revelation also comes amid JP Morgan’s bid to deepen its foray into the crypto world. 

In May, reports emerged that JP Morgan and several other major banks were in discussions over whether to team up on a jointly issued stablecoin.

JP Morgan has experimented with blockchain technologies since at least 2020, when it introduced its blockchain initiative, Onyx. Now called Kinexys, the blockchain processes more than $2 billion in daily transaction volumes, data shows

Edited by James Rubin