The Zhitong Finance App learned that the asset tokenization development trajectory of Wall Street commercial banking giants is progressing from “moving securities onto the chain” to allowing assets, payments, and collateral financing to operate collaboratively on the chain. On October 19, J.P. Morgan Chase announced the expansion of the US dollar deposit token JPM Coin to Ethereum, one of the largest cryptographic network infrastructures by market capitalization, continuing its deployment on the Base Network in 2025 to provide institutional customers with all-weather, near-real-time fund transfer capabilities. The core value of this dynamic is that as treasury bonds, funds, and other securities increasingly circulate in the form of on-chain tokens based on the RWA model, bank deposits also need to enter the corresponding network to provide settlement capital and collateral transfer support for transactions. Participation is still limited to approved institutions and vetted counterparties.
As bank deposits enter Ethereum, Wall Street financial giants are continuously filling up funding channels for the RWA wave, and the RWA trend has already entered the actual transaction process. On October 13, Bank of New York Mellon and Citadel Securities completed the settlement and tripartite repurchase process for tokenized US Treasury bonds: a two-year US bond transaction was settled within a few minutes on its private digital ledger, then used for overnight repurchase financing.
As more assets and transactions migrate to the chain, J.P. Morgan hopes to continue to master customer deposit, settlement and cash management services, and extend the customer relationships and credit advantages of traditional banks to the RWA market. As assets such as treasury bonds, funds, and stocks are gradually tokenized, institutions also need funds that can be transferred on-chain and used for payment and collateral; JPM Coin introduces US dollar bank deposits into Ethereum to provide approved institutions with all-weather, near-real-time capital circulation capabilities, and supports connections with tokenized asset transactions.
According to information, an important milestone in the RWA model is that DTCC (Depository Trust and Clearing Authority) recently organized institutions such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and BlackRock in July to complete actual transactions and settlement operations on the blockchain using the tokenized form of securities managed by its subsidiary DTC, covering treasury bonds and stocks, securities lending, collateral transfers, and central counterparty security deposit processes to push RWA from asset issuance to trading, settlement and financing applications. The application of on-chain assets is being extended from issuance and holding to the core part of the daily operation of the financial market.
Moving from private networks to public infrastructure, JPMorgan launches deposit tokens on the Ethereum network to institutional clients
J.P. Morgan is launching its deposit token on Ethereum. At a time when Wall Street is increasingly accepting transfers of funds through public networks, the bank is further promoting blockchain payments.
J.P. Morgan Chase said in a statement on Monday that JPM Coin, which represents US dollar deposits at the largest bank in the US, will be opened to the bank's institutional customers through the Ethereum network. This deposit token was first launched last year on the Base blockchain linked to Coinbase Global, allowing customers to receive and receive payments within seconds around the clock, seven days a week, without having to go through a process that could take days and only be processed during business hours.
Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs under Kinexys, the blockchain division of J.P. Morgan Chase, said in an interview with the media that it is expected that users of JPM Coin will include large cryptocurrency industry customers who want to complete payments through blockchain, as well as financial institutions that require digital cash to settle tokenized asset transactions or provide collateral for these transactions.
Tokenization allows traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and funds to be digitally represented and transferred through blockchain networks. Although banks have been exploring the potential of this technology for more than a decade, much work has so far focused on private networks. Such networks limit participants' access, and banks can have greater control over participants.
The shift to public infrastructure — although there are still restrictions on which entities can hold tokens — has brought Wall Street closer to the crypto ecosystem, enabling the use of existing liquidity resources and the developer ecosystem.
“Clearly, Wall Street and the crypto industry are merging further this year,” Landriault said. “Not only is Wall Street moving to the public chain, but institutional-level Web3 participants are also becoming more deeply integrated into it and establishing partnerships with traditional financial institutions.” She added that JPM Coin's expansion to Ethereum highlights this shift.
Landriault said the bank chose to introduce this token to Ethereum because Ethereum has a liquidity advantage and customers are already using the network. According to DeFilLama's data, as measured by the total value of locked assets, Ethereum is the largest blockchain, with around $50 billion in assets stored in applications running on the network.
As J.P. Morgan Chase expands its business layout, banks and other large financial institutions are seeking to use the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies to speed up asset transfers and break through the limitations of traditional systems. A company supported by more than 100 companies, including Visa, Stripe, and Mastercard, last month issued a stablecoin linked to the US dollar, which is another form of digital currency.
J.P. Morgan Chase can be described as one of the largest commercial online banks on Wall Street that is active in blockchain development. The bank also operates the Kinexys blockchain deposit account network, which allows enterprise customers to transfer dollars, euros, pounds, and several other currencies on its private blockchain. According to J.P. Morgan Chase, the network processes more than 7 billion US dollars of transactions per day, which still accounts for only a small portion compared to its entire payments department's processing scale of about 12 trillion US dollars per day.
Why is RWA a major trend in the financial market: making assets easier to transfer and capital to operate more effectively
RWA is a real-world asset, that is, a real-world asset on the chain. In the blockchain financial context, it usually refers to the recording and circulation of assets such as treasury bonds, stocks, funds, credit, etc., and their related rights in the form of tokens.
The key is the correspondence between tokens and actual rights: who owns assets, who receives interest or dividends, and how to transfer and redeem them all require legal arrangements, escrow, and registration system support. For example, BUIDL tokens represent fund shares; JPM coins represent bank deposits and are holders' right to request deposits from banks. This allows the two to perform different functions: the former provides investment assets, while the latter provides payment and settlement funds.
RWA has long-term development momentum, stemming from the fact that financial institutions bear the costs of cross-system reconciliation, delivery waiting, and collateral transfers every day. When assets and funds can circulate collaboratively under compatible ledgers and contract arrangements, it is expected that “securities transaction and payment are completed simultaneously” will be realized, settlement risk exposure will be shortened, and high-quality collateral can enter financing transactions more quickly. The Bank of New York Mellon's US debt repurchase case shows this efficiency improvement.
J.P. Morgan is increasing Ethereum to compete for deposit, payment, and settlement services corresponding to future on-chain asset exchanges; custodian banks and asset management institutions are competing for entry into asset issuance, registration, and distribution. The key to determining the commercial value trajectory of this trend is sustainable transaction volume, customer fund retention and service revenue, and actual savings in operating costs.