JPMorgan Launches JPMD: The Most Important Stablecoin You’ll Never Hold
JPMorgan has launched its own form of a stablecoin, a permissioned USD deposit token called JPMD, designed strictly for institutional use. Like a stablecoin, each token is backed 1:1 by actual dollars, and it can move instantly across borders. But unlike USDC or USDT, JPMD is not available to the public. Instead, it’s a private, programmable money instrument issued by JPMorgan itself, designed to settle cash flows between the bank’s global entities in real time.
Unlike most other tokenised deposit experiments, which are confined to private test environments or closed consortia, JPMD lives on a public blockchain. It runs on Base, the public Ethereum Layer 2 developed by Coinbase.
That makes JPMorgan the first major commercial bank to issue tokenised dollars on a public blockchain, not as an experiment, but as production-grade infrastructure.
The aim isn’t to replace traditional money, but to rebuild internal settlement rails so that dollars can move instantly between branches in Hong Kong, London, and New York, 24/7, with sub-second speed and near-zero cost.
JPMD’s Design Explained
JPMD’s design is straightforward. Each token represents a claim on an underlying JPMorgan deposit, but access is gated: only whitelisted institutional counterparties – essentially JPMorgan entities and selected clients – may hold or redeem it. The bank reportedly sees Base as a “happy medium” between a private network and a fully permissionless chain, giving JPMorgan the censorship controls regulators expect while still enjoying public-chain liquidity and composability.
Transactions settle for well under a cent in network fees, with no daily cut-off and no correspondent bank daisy-chain. In practice, JPMD functions as an internal settlement layer that never closes.
The scale of the step is worth pausing on. JPMorgan sits on more than US $4.3 trillion in assets and its payments arm already processes close to US $10 trillion every single day. Even if only a sliver of that flow migrates to JPMD, the volume moving across public crypto infrastructure will dwarf today’s on-chain banking pilots.
The accompanying trademark filing is equally sweeping, covering on-chain issuance, custody, fraud protection, and securities settlement, signalling that JPMD is meant to anchor a broader tokenised-cash platform rather than remain a narrow liquidity tool.
Comparison with previous experiments
Some observers will point out that JPMorgan has run a private-chain system (JPM Coin) since 2020, so why is this different? Two factors matter.
First, it shows that regulators are becoming comfortable with big banks using public blockchains, not just closed, private systems, as long as the bank can still control who has access and how the system is used.
Second, it shows that deposit tokens – not central-bank CBDCs – are emerging as the preferred way for large institutions to hold tokenised cash.
It's worth noting that Basel rules still treat tokens on permissionless networks harshly, yet JPMorgan is proceeding anyway, betting that practical utility will win the policy debate.
Stablecoin Volume
The announcement also lands against a backdrop of record-high stablecoin metrics.
Total stablecoin market capitalisation has just breached US $250 billion, a 22% jump this year alone, while on-chain transaction volumes routinely exceed the trillion-dollar mark each month.
That $250 billion refers to the total value of stablecoins currently in circulation. But those same tokens are moved, reused, and transferred repeatedly across exchanges, protocols, and institutions, which is how they generate over $1 trillion in monthly volume.
Most of that activity takes place on crypto exchanges. Stablecoins are currently still mainly used as a bridge currency by professional traders. They move in and out of exchanges quickly, acting as a neutral, dollar-denominated asset that can park value, settle trades, and shift between positions with minimal friction.
In practice, a trading firm might hold a large balance of USDC or USDT to move capital across multiple exchanges, often across borders, instantly and at low cost. Once the funds land, they’re deployed into volatile assets like Bitcoin or Ether. When it’s time to exit, profits are taken back into stablecoins, not traditional bank accounts, because it’s faster, more flexible, and keeps them ready for the next trade.
So while the stablecoin itself isn’t the asset being speculated on, it’s the liquidity layer that makes speculative crypto trading work. It’s programmable, portable, and available 24/7, a version of the dollar that never sleeps.
Note that JPMorgan is not involved in this trading flow. Instead, the token sits on a controlled, bank-grade platform and serves a single purpose: moving large sums swiftly and securely between JPMorgan entities and selected institutional clients, around the clock, with the assurance of a regulated balance-sheet behind it.
What Happens to CBDC Pilots?
If JPMD proves operationally robust, rival banks will face a choice: keep pushing CBDC pilots that rely on central-bank timelines, or issue their own deposit tokens on similar public rails.
Outside the U.S., several major banks have been actively involved in CBDC pilots, but progress remains cautious and closely tied to central bank timelines.
HSBC has participated in cross-border wholesale CBDC trials, including Project mBridge with the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE.
Société Générale has worked with the Banque de France to test CBDC-based settlement of tokenised bonds.
Deutsche Bank and ING are contributing to the ECB’s Digital Euro project and other exploratory initiatives with national regulators, focusing on both retail and programmable use cases.
These pilots demonstrate growing interest, but they remain experimental.
JPMD probably now increases the likelihood that other banks will follow suit by issuing their own deposit tokens on comparable public blockchain infrastructure.
Either way, the underlying message is clear. Stablecoin-style infrastructure has moved from crypto curiosity to banking reality. The world’s largest bank has placed real money, at real scale, on an open blockchain, and done so for the most unglamorous of reasons: it makes settlement simpler, faster and cheaper.
When that logic becomes undeniable, more banks – and eventually market utilities – will follow. The pipes are being quietly rerouted beneath our feet.
When that logic becomes undeniable, more banks, and eventually the market utilities like SWIFT, DTCC, CLS that underpin global finance, will follow. They’re not commercial banks, but they manage the messaging, clearing, and settlement layers that keep global payments, securities, and FX markets running. If programmable, on-chain money proves faster, cheaper, and more reliable, even these core utilities will face pressure to modernise.
Why Stablecoins Matter: The Most Important Innovation in Fintech Right Now
If you’ve read this far, congrats. You’re clearly as deep into the stablecoin rabbit hole as I am.
I’ll be direct: I believe stablecoins represent one of the most significant — and still underappreciated — shifts happening in fintech today. This isn’t just another trend or product cycle. It’s a fundamental re-architecture of how money moves.
While much of fintech continues to iterate on front-end experiences or wrap legacy rails in new interfaces, stablecoins offer something different: genuinely new infrastructure. Infrastructure that is programmable, composable, and global by default.
I’m convinced this will shape the next decade in payments, treasury, and platform finance. And if you’re exploring how this shift could affect your business, or where the real opportunities lie, I’d be glad to help unpack it further.