Wall Street is finally getting on the same rails as DeFi, as seen with JPMorgan Chase & Co. starting to roll out the JPM Coin Deposit token on Coinbase’s base network.
This will enable institutional investors to settle transactions instantly 24/7, significantly extending traditional banking to public blockchain infrastructure.
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Deposit token meets public blockchain
JPM Coin represents dollar deposits held in banks and allows clients to send and receive funds on the Base chain, an Ethereum-compatible public network.
Citing Naveen Marella, global co-head of JPMorgan’s blockchain arm Kinexys, Bloomberg reported that deposit tokens are an attractive alternative to stablecoins, offering the ability to generate yields tied directly to customer deposits.
Unlike traditional stablecoins, which rarely pass on interest earned on reserve assets, JPM Coin can pay interest to holders. This makes them attractive to institutions such as crypto trading companies that use stablecoins for collateral and liquidity management.
JPMorgan’s rollout comes on the heels of trials involving Mastercard, Coinbase, and B2C2. The bank plans to expand access to its customers and add other currency versions, pending regulatory approval. Marella acknowledged the trademark “JPME” as a potential euro-denominated token.
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Coinbase’s base network as a common rail
The launch leverages Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 solution, which already powers a $1 billion on-chain Bitcoin-backed loan book. Through Base, Coinbase allows users to borrow USDC against Bitcoin without selling BTC, and integrates protocols like Morpho to streamline collateral lending.
By hosting both JPM Coin and DeFi native services, Base has become the first public blockchain to support the integration of regulated banking tokens and permissionless financial applications. This synergy creates an integrated infrastructure that allows TradFi and DeFi to coexist.
This agreement also highlights broader trends. Banks such as JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank are increasingly experimenting with blockchain to facilitate faster, cheaper, and more accessible payments beyond traditional business hours.
BeInCrypto reported that Citigroup has entered the stablecoin race following JPMorgan. The bank is also considering a custodian role for stablecoins and crypto ETF collateral. Similarly, Deutsche Bank recently developed Layer 2 to overcome blockchain compliance challenges.
Meanwhile, Coinbase continues to expand its DeFi ecosystem, offering Bitcoin-backed loans, on-chain USDC lending, and multi-protocol integration, demonstrating that public blockchain infrastructure can support institutional-scale financial activities.
The launch of JPM Coin on Base proves that regulated finance and DeFi can operate on the same network. Banks gain speed, transparency, and efficiency, while protocols like Coinbase can introduce organized flows without compromising decentralization.
The lines between TradFi and DeFi are becoming blurred as JPMorgan and Coinbase share the rails of Base. Expect multi-currency deposit tokens, institutional adoption of public blockchains, and increasingly seamless interaction between DeFi lending and traditional banking.
