The tokenization trajectory of Wall Street's major commercial banks is shifting from simply moving securities onto the blockchain to enabling assets, payments, and collateral financing to operate in coordinated fashion on-chain.
On October 19, JPMorgan Chase announced it would extend its USD deposit token JPM Coin to Ethereum, one of the largest crypto network infrastructures by market capitalization, building on its 2025 deployment on the Base network to provide institutional clients with round-the-clock, near-instantaneous fund transfer capabilities.
The core value of this development lies in the fact that as Treasuries, funds, and other securities increasingly circulate as on-chain tokens based on the RWA model, bank deposits also need to enter the corresponding networks to provide settlement funds and collateral transfer support for transactions.
Participation remains limited to approved institutions and vetted counterparties.
As bank deposits make their way onto Ethereum, Wall Street's financial giants are steadily filling in the funding channels for the broader RWA wave, and the RWA trend has already entered actual trading operations.
On October 13, Bank of New York Mellon and Citadel Securities completed settlement and tri-party repo processes for tokenized US Treasuries: a two-year Treasury transaction settled within minutes on its private digital ledger and was subsequently used for overnight repo financing.
With more assets and transactions migrating on-chain, JPMorgan Chase aims to retain control over client deposits, payment settlement, and cash management businesses, extending the customer relationships and credit advantages of traditional banking into the RWA market.
As Treasuries, funds, stocks, and other assets gradually become tokenized, institutions also need funds that can be transferred on-chain for payments and collateral; JPM Coin brings USD bank deposits onto Ethereum, providing approved institutions with round-the-clock, near-instantaneous fund transfer capabilities and supporting linkage with tokenized asset trading.
It is understood that a significant milestone for the RWA model came earlier when DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) organized Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, and other institutions in July to use tokenized forms of securities custodied by its subsidiary DTC to complete actual transactions and settlement operations on the blockchain, covering delivery-versus-payment for Treasuries and equities, securities lending, collateral transfers, and central counterparty margin processes, advancing RWA from asset issuance toward trading, settlement, and financing applications.
The application of assets on-chain is extending from issuance and holding to the core links of daily financial market operations.
From Private Networks to Public Infrastructure: JPMorgan Rolls Out Deposit Token on Ethereum to Institutional Clients
JPMorgan Chase is launching its deposit token on Ethereum.
As Wall Street increasingly embraces transferring funds through public networks, the bank is further advancing its blockchain payment business.
JPMorgan Chase said in a statement on Monday that JPM Coin, which represents USD deposits at the largest US bank, will be made available to its institutional clients through the Ethereum network.
The deposit token was first launched last year on the Base blockchain associated with Coinbase Global, allowing clients to send and receive payments around the clock, seven days a week, within seconds, rather than going through processes that can take several days and are only handled during business hours.
Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs under JPMorgan Chase's blockchain division Kinexys, said in a media interview that the bank expects users of JPM Coin to include large crypto industry clients looking to complete payments via blockchain, as well as financial institutions needing digital cash to settle tokenized asset transactions or provide collateral for such transactions.
Tokenization allows traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and funds to be digitally represented and transferred through blockchain networks.
Although banks have explored the potential of this technology for over a decade, much of the work to date has still focused on private networks.
Such networks restrict participant access, giving banks greater control over participants.
The shift to public infrastructure — though still imposing restrictions on which entities can hold tokens — brings Wall Street closer to the crypto ecosystem, enabling it to leverage existing liquidity resources and developer communities.
"Clearly, Wall Street and the crypto industry are converging further this year," Landriault said.
"Not only is Wall Street moving toward public chains, but institutional-grade Web3 participants are also integrating more deeply and building partnerships with traditional financial institutions."
She added that JPM Coin's expansion to Ethereum highlights this shift.
Landriault said the bank chose to bring the token to Ethereum because of Ethereum's liquidity advantages and because clients are already using the network.
According to DefiLlama data, Ethereum is the largest blockchain by total value locked, with approximately $50 billion in assets deposited in applications running on the network.
As JPMorgan Chase expands its business footprint, banks and other large financial institutions are seeking to leverage the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies to accelerate asset transfers and overcome the limitations of traditional systems.
A company backed by more than 100 firms including Visa, Stripe, and Mastercard issued a USD-pegged stablecoin last month, another form of digital currency.
JPMorgan Chase is arguably one of the more active Wall Street commercial banks in blockchain development.
The bank also operates the Kinexys blockchain deposit account network, allowing corporate clients to transfer USD, EUR, GBP, and several other currencies on its private blockchain.
JPMorgan Chase says the network processes over $7 billion in transactions daily, still a small fraction relative to the roughly $12 trillion in daily processing volume across its entire payments division.
Why RWA Has Become a Major Financial Market Trend: Making Assets Easier to Transfer and Funds More Efficient
RWA stands for Real-World Assets, meaning real-world assets on-chain.
In the context of blockchain finance, it typically refers to recording and transferring assets such as Treasuries, stocks, funds, and credit, along with their related rights, in token form.
The key lies in the correspondence between tokens and actual rights: who owns the asset, who receives interest or dividends, and how transfers and redemptions are handled all require legal arrangements, custody, and registration system support.
For example, BUIDL tokens represent fund shares; JPM Coin represents bank deposits, which are the holder's deposit claim against the bank.
This allows the two to serve different functions: the former provides investment assets, while the latter provides payment and settlement funds.
RWA has long-term development momentum because financial institutions bear the costs of cross-system reconciliation, settlement waits, and collateral allocation every day.
When assets and funds can circulate in coordinated fashion under compatible ledgers and contractual arrangements, it is expected to achieve delivery-versus-payment where "securities delivery and payment are completed simultaneously," shortening settlement risk exposure and allowing high-quality collateral to enter financing transactions more quickly.
The US Treasury repo case at Bank of New York Mellon demonstrates exactly this kind of efficiency improvement.
JPMorgan Chase's increased bet on Ethereum is about capturing the deposit, payment, and settlement businesses corresponding to future on-chain asset trading; custodian banks and asset managers are competing for asset issuance, registration, and distribution entry points.
The key to determining the commercial value trajectory of this trend is sustainable trading volume, client fund retention and service revenue, and operational costs that can actually be saved.
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