Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase. Photo credit: World Economic Forum, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Financial services giant JPMorgan Chase has set up a new division to house its blockchain and digital currency’s business, as made known by Takis Georgakopoulos, the bank’s global head of wholesale payments. The new unit is called Onyx and is the division responsible for the operation of JPMorgan’s first digital currency, JPM Coin, which is being used commercially for the first time this week by an unnamed technology client to send payments around the globe.

The creation of a formal blockchain division signals JPMorgan increasingly bolstering its presence in the digital currency market. JPMorgan, once seemingly averse to the digital currency market, has turned the tides to do significant work in the market. Notably, in May, the banking giant signed up Bitcoin exchanges Coinbase and Gemini as its first digital currency customers. 

In the usual financial world, JPMorgan stands tall and handles more than $6 trillion of transactions per day across dozens of countries. Cross-border payments handled by the bank relies on a complex global network of correspondent banks and financial services firms and many times prove difficult. Now, it seems that JP Morgan is adopting the blockchain to help solve that pain point. 

Another area where blockchain could come in handy to JPMorgan is the processing of paper checks which usually requires a large number of people to handle mail at physical locations. On the blockchain, the digital information associated with a check could get posted and skip the need for physical mailing, a caveat being ensured security.

Still in its early stages, JPMorgan’s JPM Coin hasn’t been adopted widely yet. The company has signed up a large technology company for initial commercial use and is working on on-boarding new clients.

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