JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Thursday it plans to launch its own digital coins, called "JPM Coin", that customers will be able to use for instant transfer of payments over a blockchain Network.
The largest U.S. bank by assets said customers, on depositing money at the bank, will be issued the cryptocurrency that they will be able to use for transactions over the network with other JPMorgan clients.
The coin can be redeemed for a U.S. dollar, so its value will largely remain stable, the bank said
When one client sends money to another over the blockchain, JPM Coins are transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalent amount of U.S. dollars, reducing the typical settlement time, the bank said.
Last year, several big U.S. lenders including JPMorgan, banned the purchase of bitcoins by credit-card customers. Rival Goldman Sachs also ditched its plan to open a desk for cryptocurrency trading.
JPMorgan said its new coin, which will be issued on its in-house blockchain technology Quorum, was currently a prototype. The company plans to make the coin operable on all standard blockchain networks.