The new division is called Onyx, according to the bank’s global head of wholesale payments, Takis Georgakopoulos. With over 100 employees, it was created in tandem with JPM Coin, the bank’s digital currency, being used commercially for the first time this week. (CNBC)
Talking point: “We are launching Onyx because we believe we are shifting to a period of commercialization of those technologies, moving from research and development to something that can become a real business,” Georgakopoulos told CNBC. Blockchain has been hyped as a technology that could completely disrupt traditional finance, but companies have so far been slow to adopt its use. JPMorgan first revealed JPM Coin in February 2019, in an attempt at speeding up transactions using blockchain technology. Almost two years later, JPM Coin is finally going live with a large international technology company the bank did not name, but which it says will use the digital currency for “round-the-clock cross-border payments.”