JPMorgan brings JPM Coin to Canton, its second extension after launching on Base

J.P. Morgan's blockchain and digital payments division Kinexys is launching JPM Coin (ticker JPMD) on the Canton Network, a permissionless Layer 1 designed for institutional finance.

The move extends JPM Coin to its second network after launching on the Coinbase-supported Ethereum Layer 2 Base in November 2025. 

JPM Coin is a so-called deposit token issued by J.P. Morgan, representing U.S. dollar deposits held at the bank. It serves as a bank-backed alternative to stablecoins for institutional clients, enabling near-instant, 24/7 peer-to-peer transfers and settlements.

"This collaboration moves the industry forward in transacting on public blockchains," Naveen Mallela, global co-head of Kinexys, said in a statement. "In bringing JPM Coin onto Canton, we can further increase efficiency and unlock liquidity."

Canton, developed by blockchain infrastructure firm Digital Asset, is a network supported by Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Börse, BNY Mellon, and other financial players. The network offers "configurable privacy" for regulatory and operational needs.

Launched in 2024 and governed by the independent Canton Foundation, Canton is home to a number of major enterprise blockchain experiments, including DTCC's limited pilot to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities.

Digital Asset raised $135 million in a funding round in June led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets to accelerate onboarding real-world assets. Digital Asset claims to have about 400 ecosystem participants on the network, including firms like BNP Paribas, DRW, and Goldman Sachs.

Institutional use cases

Mallela has said that institutions could use JPMD for onchain digital asset settlement and cross-border business-to-business transactions.

Kinexys is taking a phased approach to the JPMD deployment throughout 2026 and is considering other possible integrations, like bringing J.P. Morgan's Blockchain Deposit Accounts to Canton, according to the statement. 

The bank first hinted it would issue a permissioned deposit token in June 2025, pitching it as an "alternative to stablecoins for institutional clients" that could be accessed via a wallet at Chase. Institutions would soon be able to natively access, issue, transfer, and redeem JPMD on Canton "near-instantly within a secure and synchronized ecosystem."

A version of JPM Coin was first introduced in 2019 on J.P. Morgan's permissioned Onyx blockchain (rebranded to Kineyx in 2024). Although J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been an outspoken critic of Bitcoin, the bank itself has been a pioneer in blockchain experimentation on Wall Street, including building a permissioned Ethereum fork called Quorum.

Dimon has since joined the ranks of financial executives who have expressed interest in stablecoins and the broader crypto sector.

Together with Singapore's DBS, Kinexys is developing an interoperability framework for tokenized deposit transfers across various types of blockchain networks.