On Tuesday, JPMorgan announced that its blockchain unit is launching JPMD, a USD deposit token for institutional clients, on Base. That’s right: the world’s biggest bank by assets and the 12th largest company by market cap is putting real dollars onchain.
JPMD isn’t quite a stablecoin, but it’s close. It represents actual dollar deposits at JPMorgan and will be used by institutional clients for blockchain-based transactions. The bank plans to run a pilot over the coming months and eventually expand it to other user groups and currencies, pending regulatory approval.
To understand what this means for the broader crypto ecosystem (and why JPMorgan chose Base), we brought on Jesse Pollak, head of Base and Coinbase Wallet. In this episode, Jesse explains:
Why JPMorgan (and Shopify) chose Base
What deposit tokens are, and how they differ from stablecoins
Why infrastructure is finally “ready” for institutions
How Base scaled from 2.5 million to 35 million gas/sec
What’s next for Coinbase users who’ll have one-tap access to onchain assets
And Jesse’s response to the critics who said that Coinbase doesn’t give enough credit to Ethereum