ARMONK, N.Y.—IBM has confirmed that at least two major U.S. banks may soon follow JPMorgan Chase & Co’s lead and introduce their own cryptocurrency.
CUToday.info reported the JPMorgan Chase move here.
Jesse Lund, IBM’s vice president of blockchain, said that the company has held initial discussions with the two lenders on issuing a so-called stablecoin – a digital token that is pegged 1:1 to an established currency like the U.S. dollar, Bloomberg reported.
JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, announced in February that it would issue a digital currency tied to the dollar, called JPM Coin.
“We have received interest on the heels of JPM Coin,” Lund told Bloomberg. The two other banks “reached out to us after that announcement.” He declined to name the banks, Bloomberg said.
$5 Trillion In Payments Each Day
JPMorgan, which moves more than $5 trillion in wholesale payments each day, said its coin will use its own private blockchain to speed payments among corporate customers.
IBM said it is also working with six non-U.S. banks on digital currencies. Among them are BNK Financial Group Inc.’s Busan Bank in South Korea, and in the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., which is expected to issue a stablecoin in the second quarter, Lund said. The banks are awaiting approvals from regulators, Bloomberg reported.
Coins issued by the international banks can run on IBM’s new, just-introduced Blockchain World Wire network.