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JP Morgan emerges as first bank to enter the metaverse with a virtual lounge

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JP Morgan, the largest US bank, has opened the Onyx lounge in Decentraland, making it the first lender in the metaverse. The virtual lounge is the bank’s first foray into the virtual world.

Oynx is the name of JP Morgan’s permissible Ethereum-based services. The virtual lounge bears the same name, and it allows institutions and businesses to access the metaverse.

The financial behemoth has released reports on cryptocurrencies’ general acceptance. The latest report from JP Morgan provides insight into the metaverse and integrated commerce applications opportunities. Electronics and fashion businesses have entered the world of digital real estate and metaverse parties, offering customers digital collectibles and experiences.

JP Morgan is exploring opportunities in the Metaverse

“There is a lot of client interest to learn more about the metaverse,” Christine Moy, JPMorgan’s head of crypto and the metaverse, stated in an email. “We put together our white paper to help clients cut through the noise and highlight what the current reality is, and what needs to be built next in technology, commercial infrastructure, privacy/identity, and workforce, in order to maximize the full potential of our lives in the metaverse.”

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They wrote in their metaverse report:

“One of the great possibilities of the metaverse is that it will massively expand access to the marketplace for consumers from emerging and frontier economies.”

JPMorgan starts its analysis of “metanomics” by noting that the average price of a virtual plot of land increased in the second half of 2021, rising from $6,000 in June to $12,000 in December across the four major Web 3 metaverse sites: Decentraland, The Sandbox, Somnium Space, and Cryptovoxels.

According to the JPMorgan analysis, “in time, the virtual real estate market might see services similar to those found in the actual world,” such as credit, mortgages, and rental agreements. It went on to say that decentralized finance (DeFi) collateral management might play a role and that this could be handled by decentralized autonomous organizations rather than traditional finance businesses (DAO).

The metaverse’s components continue to change at a breakneck pace. It’s challenging to build a corporate strategy around such a dynamic environment characterized by rapid development and new entrant innovation.

The costs and risks of engaging early and regularly to generate internal intellectual property, establish ideas about future business models, and discover ecosystem partners and collaborators, on the other hand, are pretty minimal. The asymmetrical risk of being left behind justifies the small initial expenditure required to get started and explore this new digital terrain.

JP Morgan CEO labels Bitcoin “worthless”; Clients strongly disagree

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A vast number of individuals across the globe have welcomed Bitcoin [BTC] with open arms, however, JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon remained untethered while the hype around crypto persists. Dimon was even seen outrightly dissing the king coin.

Despite being the first and the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin [BTC] took long and hard to reach its current stature. With criticisms from all across the globe, survival became rather difficult for the asset. However, the latest fervor around the coin got it out of its nascent stage in no time. While Bitcoin continues to thrive, major platforms were seen onboarding the coin. But, one platform continues to remain hostile towards BTC.

JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon appeared in a recent interview with Bloomberg and reveal that his resentment towards Bitcoin was persisting.

JP Morgan CEO still hostile towards BTC

Over the last couple of years, the JP Morgan CEO had continuously expressed his discontent with regard to Bitcoin. Dimon has called BTC an array of things, including, “terrible store of value,” “a fraud”, ” will be stopped,” and many more. Now, in his latest interview, Dimon went on to label the asset,” worthless.”

While all the altcoins were seen plummeting, BTC was the only asset that was thriving. The asset was undoubtedly aiming for $60K. At press time, BTC was trading for $57,310.

Despite the well-lauded growth of the king coin, Dimon went on to call it worthless. “I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless,” he added. He also suggested that he didn’t care and that it made no difference to him.

However, JP Morgan’s clients certainly think the same about the coin. Addressing the same, Dimon said,

“Our clients are adults, they disagree, that’s what makes markets, so if they want to have access to buy yourself Bitcoin, we can’t custody it but we can give them legitimate, as-clean-as-possible access.”

This made it clear that Dimon had no interest in BTC. While he does not refrain his clients from using it, Dimon could miss out on what the crypto market has to offer.

Russia’s Prominent Bank Partners With JP Morgan To Roll Out A Cryptocurrency

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Albeit the government of Russia making efforts to probe the launch of a CBDC, banks in the country have also seemed to have expressed their keen interest in digital assets. One of Russia’s largest state-owned banks revealed its enthusiasm towards rolling out its native digital asset along with a platform that aids in the trading of similar assets. A recent report by Reuters shed light on the launch of this project.

Russia’s Sberbank To Roll Out A Crypto Trading Platform

Cryptocurrencies have been subject to an immense backlash in the past. The assets have been publicly denounced by several authorities across the globe. However, they seem to have recognized the value and prospects of cryptocurrencies. Russia seems to be upping its crypto game. The country’s largest lender, Sberbank revealed that it was soon going roll out a crypto trading platform along with a cryptocurrency, Sbercoin. This project is reportedly the bank’s collaboration with JPMorgan.

The CEO of Sberbank, German Gref suggested that the bank would roll out the Sbercoin sometime next year. Back in July, the Russian government put forth a new law that allowed the trading of crypto, however, prohibited its citizens from employing digital assets as a payment method. Speaking to the RBC, a Russian news portal about that same, Gref said,

“From January 1, the law comes into force, we want to bring to the market our new blockchain platform, which will provide services for the purchase of digital financial assets.”

In other news, the officials at the Russian central bank, Bank of Russia recently revealed that they were against the launch of private stablecoins backed by the Russian ruble. As reported by Russia’s news agency, Prime, the authorities reportedly suggested that developers were allowed to use the central bank’s digital ruble and nothing else. The bank intends to ban private platforms from issuing stablecoins pegged to the country’s official currency.

Russia’s latest move led to several drawing similarities between the former’s and China’s move. China had also issued a blanket ban on stablecoins backed by the yuan. Speaking about the same, the deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, Sergei Shvetsov said,

“I think that we are not far from this. At least, everything that will be used as a means of payment will be suppressed by us. We proceed from the assumption that the Russian Federation’s means of payment is the ruble.”

JP Morgan Crypto Credit Card Lawsuit Settled for $2.5 Million

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The 2018 JP Morgan crypto credit card lawsuit was recently settled by banking giants with $2.5 million in total payouts. The lawsuit filed two years ago claimed that JP Morgan Chase overcharged its customers for buying digital currencies using the bank’s credit card, categorizing purchases as cash advances.

JP Morgan Chase has opted to classify crypto purchases as “cash advances,” which are generally charged more than usual. As a result, some of the bank’s clients filed a class action suit back in 2018, which was settled back in March of this year. As part of the agreement, the banking giants will not admit any misdemeanor.

JP Morgan crypto credit card lawsuit was filed in 2018

However, according to a report by Reuters on May 28, the bank accepted to resolve the class action lawsuit by paying $2.5 million. According to one of the plaintiffs, Brady Tucker, JP Morgan breached the Truth in Lending Act; as it did not notify its clients that buying crypto using a credit card is being treated as “cash advances.” The report highlights:

“In a motion filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, plaintiffs said the settlement would result in class members getting about 95% of the fees they said they were unlawfully charged.”  

This classification resulted in customers being charged higher fees than usual. In his case, Tucker argues that JP Morgan declined to refund him for excessively charging him; after using his credit card to purchase digital currencies from Coinbase.

JP Morgan changes stance towards crypto

In reality, two years ago, when the lawsuit was filed, JP Morgan was unfriendly to digital currencies. The CEO of the bank, Jamie Dimon, also went on to label Bitcoin as a fraud. However, he later confessed to CNBC that he was mistaken to label Bitcoin as a fraud.

Nevertheless, it has recently been reported that JP Morgan offers banking services to two cryptocurrency exchanges, namely Coinbase and Gemini. This shows that the bank has changed its stance towards cryptocurrencies in recent times.

JP Morgan Goes bullish on Crypto as Coinbase and Gemini Create Accounts with The Bank

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Typically, the cryptocurrency industry has been viewed as an inferior sector compared to mainstream stalwarts. This feeling has caused a great deal of lag in the virtual asset environment, with banking institutions going through hard, at least until now.

Just recently, JP Morgan revealed that it was jumping into the digital asset stranglehold by offering banking services to crypto-bigwigs Coinbase and Gemini. According to official sources, the shift in sentiments of JP Morgan comes after the untapped potential of the decentralized market has been realized.

JP Morgan claimed that they will provide services such as deposits, withdrawals and transfers to both Coinbase and Gemini. Both facilities will be focused on the architecture of the Automated Clearing House [ACH], which is approved by most banking institutions. The latest move by the bank is set to prove beneficial to cryptocurrency companies as it solves one of the biggest concerns of the industry: lack of trust.

Banks have generally deferred from partnering with organizations in the virtual asset world due to rampant fears of money laundering. This has slowly dissipated with the passage of time as legitimate companies have gone through a number of regulatory hoops. JPMorgan was also interested in the sector earlier, with the bank pulling out of the planned stablecoin in 2019.

The latest venture of the bank allowed Gemini and Coinbase to become their first cryptocurrency clients. Sources close to JP Morgan added that the two exchange accounts were approved last month, with transactions already being processed. Speaking of the topic at the online portal, a major banker said:

“It’s quite significant news in my opinion. There is little business in fees associated with processing wire and ACH payments, I would expect that there are other associated benefits to JPM from any associated banking services, additional collaboration with both of those firms, potential for winning any future IPO or another angle such as JPM coin being offered on either of those platforms.”

Major bank on-board cryptocurrency companies can also act as a sign for other institutions to sit down and take note. Analysts said that if JPMorgan succeeds with Coinbase and Gemini, then it was only a matter of time before another suit followed. Some people in space found it ironic that a corporation whose CEO named Bitcoin ‘a scam’ earlier was going to make such a move.

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon had previously claimed that fiat currency was the way to go, and that bitcoin was only a way for scammers to make money. Dimon stuck with his statements even though the bank was playing with the idea of a ‘JPM Coin.’ The CEO claimed that while Bitcoin was useless, its underlying blockchain technology had a huge potential.

Say what you’re going to do about growth, the cryptocurrency world will benefit greatly from the news circulation. The objective has always been to achieve credibility among the institutions, and the two exchanges would be happy to know that they were in the initial stages.

JP Morgan’s Quorum to Merge With Ethereum Based ConsenSys; Has Mainstream Finance Finally Decided to Trust Crypto?

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Mainstream companies have understood that integrating blockchain technology into their peripherals would result in added advantages in business. This was also a mantra followed by one of the world’s biggest banks, JP Morgan.

Recently, JP Morgan revealed that they were considering merging their popular Quorum blockchain unit with the ConsenSys Joseph Lubin. The news is coming in the wake of a report that indicated some troubled times for ConsenSys

Sources close to the bank stated that they were in initial talks to merge Quorum because of its functionalities and abilities to utilize blockchain. There have been no formal announcements as of yet but a concrete plan is expected to be revealed in 4-6 months.

ConsenSys is expected to be a good fit for Quorum because the latter too is based on Ethereum. Quorum is used by JP Morgan to run the Interbank Information Network which acts as a payments network for over 300 banks. There were also earlier comments that mentioned Quorum would be used to create the bank’s native crypto called JP Morgan Coin.

Ethereum’s commonality was one of the main reasons why the companies decided to merge. The bank revealed that they were planning to spin-off Quorum for another two years. Along with this, JP Morgan also has plans to set up an open-source foundation as well as creating a new startup. The spin-off idea was first suggested back in May 2019 but it was anything but concrete.

Quorum blockchain has also gone through some upgrades over the months, forcing many people to sit up and take notice. Quorum now has added privacy features from Ethereum as well as an upgrade within the Java programming language.

The news was also met with some trepidation as there was growing concern that a change in integration would affect existing projects on Quorum. People close to the initiative stated that the merger with ConsenSys would not change a thing to exiting compounds.

ConsenSys was also in the news recently when a project based on it launched its own ‘Proof-of-Use’ Network to discourage speculation. The project is titled, Activate and is part of the ConsenSys Codefi. It is an Ethereum-based operating system for decentralized finance products.

The updates from ConsenSys is expected to generate more interest from JP Morgan for the Quorum integration. Many proponents of the space see it as an opportunity to bring in more developments into the digital asset industry by involving mainstream finance.

 

Former JP Morgan Employees Aim to Solve Enterprise Blockchain Issues with Kadena

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The cryptocurrency industry has seen a remarkable turn of events, especially when it comes to developments and updates. Apart from growing in terms of partnerships and tie-ups, organizations were now changing the way they work from the inside out. 

Just recently, a new blockchain-based startup called Kadena was launched in New York to give the enterprise world access to the characteristics of a public blockchain.

This would also be done by ensuring that all transactions on the chain are treated with the privacy of a private chain.

Enterprise companies have been trying their best to enter the blockchain market because they have realized the benefits of the industry.

This ranges from increased security as well as faster transaction times. The founders of Kadena, Stuart Popejoy, and Will Martino earlier worked at JP Morgan Chase, where they were in charge of the blockchain team. According to Martino, Kadena was:

“… a scaled proof of work mainnet. The key here, with this launch, is that for the first time ever we figured out how to have a scaled proof of work network. We figured out how to shard proof of work.”

The startup has revealed that Kadena comprises of three parts: a private chain called kuro, a public chain known as chainweb and its native open-source smart contract language called Pact.

Kadena wants to fill in the void where enterprises require the functionality of a public blockchain but without its security concerns.

In most cases, a lot of companies refrain from using blockchain technology because of the fungibility factor. At present, there are a few projects seeking to connect enterprise blockchain with public blockchain networks. This includes JP Morgan’s native Quorum network which is based on Ethereum.

The roster also includes Besu, a product from Hyperledger that is supposed to be quick and user-friendly.

With Kadena, the organization plans to provide an end to end solution for all processes on the blockchain. Sources close to the company claim that they want enterprises to build applications on its private chain instead of building it from scratch.

Kadena has stated that its blockchain solution is much faster than the existing ones, even faster than Bitcoin and Ethereum settlement times. This works by the creation of a blockchain with the potential to contain several other chains.

Each chain on the chainweb has a dedicated amount of throughput that is somewhere between 10 and 100 tps.

The introduction of Kadena is also expected to boost the dApp market. As Kadena works on a single layer principle, it will have more processing power to run applications. The developers have also claimed to fic the onboarding issues that have otherwise plagued blockchain networks.

Ethereum’s Blockchain in Limelight as JP Morgan Portfolio Company Partners With Blockchain Startup

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Blockchain startups have been booming across the spectrum with many of them being headed by former mainstream players or bankers. This further sheds light on the growing dominance of the digital assets space.

To keep this surge going, Smartac, a JP Morgan portfolio company dealing in the product designation space has partnered with blockchain startup Citizens Reserve.

According to reports, Citizens Reserve is a supply chain platform built on the blockchain. This enables it to conduct transactions and process code much faster than conventional methods. The startup is slated to use its blockchain-based SUKU supply chain platform to integrate with the JP Morgan affiliate.

Addressing the latest partnership, Dinesh Dhamija, the CTO of Citizens Reserve stated:

“The combination of Smartrac’s digital enablement capabilities along with Citizen’s Reserves’ SUKU platform will provide a unique identity for each physical product with a transparent and accessible supply chain solution.”

Dhmaija also mentioned that the partnership will allow Smartac to bring its technology into the blockchain world. This is not the first time that the supply chain industry has dabbled in blockchain technology. Industries such as shipping and transportation have already taken the leap into the world of digital assets earlier.

JP Morgan had tasked Smartac with creating a more immutable ecosystem for industries such as food and the latest move is a step in that direction. The company utilizes RFID technology as well as the much-hyped Internet of Things [IoT].

With the latest partnership, Smartac will be able to use Citizens Reserve’s resources on the Ethereum blockchain. At the same time, it will also be able to tap into JP Morgan’s native Quorum blockchain.

Both the companies have clarified that utilizing blockchain technology in sectors such as the food and beverage marketplace gives it more credibility. Eric Piscini, the chief executive of Citizens Reserve added:

“RFID tags are critical when you think about supply chain and what we do, we do supply chain on blockchain, and when you need to track an item using the supply chain, whether it’s components or it’s a final product, you need RFID tags, and the partnership is really for us to be able to provide a complete solution to our clients.”

The specific RFID technology used by Smartac is aimed to solve real-world problems faced by customers. This includes increasing traceability of products, prevention of data tampering and the transport of illegal commodities. Using the Ethereum blockchain provided by Citizens Reserve, customers will be able to track physical goods from the pickup to drop point.

Piscini earlier worked in the blockchain department at Deloitte, making it one of the first mainstream companies to enter the decentralized sectors. Since his exit, the Citizens Reserve CEO has made it his mission to include blockchain tech in a variety of sectors.

He revealed that the first application will be in the meat industry and will not rest until its dominated. Citizens Reserve also has long term plans to carry this blockchain technology into several other institutionalized sectors.

 

Source: Forbes

XRP is useless to Ripple, a bitcoin maximalist and ex-VP at JP Morgan Chase

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The crypto industry is slowly but steadily gaining momentum. Mass adoption has not yet been achieved, but everything is surely pointing towards that direction. And Ripple’s XRP has played a vital role in the mission so far. But one notable personality thinks differently on this.

So, there are several cryptos with most of them currently doing well in the market. One of them and the most tongue lashed crypto is Ripple’s XRP.

XRP has recently been under severe scrutiny from a contributor on Forbes, who condemned the asset as a scam without a good use case. As if that’s not enough, now XRP has been branded as a ‘totally useless’ digital asset by him.

A Typical Maximalist Leaves No Stone Unturned

Not too long ago, Derivatives trader, YouTube personality, analyst, and crypto contrarian, Tone Vays referred to Ripple’s XRP as a ‘useless penny stock,’ and now he has gone a step further saying that XRP is just useless to Ripple (the firm behind the digital currency).

Apparently, he should be having his reasons for such comments. But first, Vays is a typical bitcoin maximalist; therefore, from that perspective, we may understand his remarks. Maybe he’s feeling the pressure behind the back that XRP is pushing over bitcoin.

According to him, XRP is useless to the parent firm Ripple, and that it can be swayed anyhow – and that the latest partnership of Ripple with MoneyGram doesn’t intimate the fact that XRP isn’t a security.

But let’s face it

First, Vays says that XRP should not have existed in the first place. Many think those allegations are the truth but look at xRapid for a moment. Take a few folks who send money across the border in an efficient way and tell them Ripple is useless.

Your guess is as good as mine; Ripple is their small paradise with reduced costs and quick transactions. That is one area it’s overtaking bitcoin, and perhaps Vays isn’t pleased about it.

Also, saying that XRP should be compared to PayPal is a big joke given that PayPal manages only to perform 193 transactions per second while XRP handles over 1,500 transactions per second. Therefore, it’s indeed unclear why he would refer to Ripple’s XRP useless or even not faster than PayPal.

Nevertheless, Tone Vays is an early bitcoin supporter, and we may not expect him to comment positively on Ripple’s XRP which is breathing on bitcoin’s neck. That said, he doesn’t need to do that, Ripple and its cryptocurrency are a completely different elephant than BTC. Bitcoin and XRP can keep growing together.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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JP Morgan is skeptic about Bitcoin value (again)

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The Wall Street elephant JP Morgan is not convinced by Bitcoin’s recent rally, and it’s issued a warning saying that the BTC price would take a dive soon.

The New York financial giant believes that the recent rally is nothing but a trap for the foolhardy that will mirror, yet again, the boom-bust cycle prevalent in the cryptocurrency’s history.

The premier digital coin faced some tough times during 2018, and even during 2019’s first quarter. Then, since last April 2nd, it’s doubled its price, which has caused a lot of optimism within the cryptosphere about a new bullish run.

Some analysts think that Bitcoin’s surge is caused to the US-China trade war, concerns over the stock market’s performance, dread about Bitcoin’s supply, and many other things. These are usually the reasons quoted by experts behind the increased demand for gold. It makes no sense to use them to explain why something is worthless.

JP Morgan’s analysts believe that the current rise is a false start. Like in December 2017 when Bitcoin’s price almost reached USD 20.000,00 only to plummet without any apparent reason.

“Over the past few days, the actual price has moved sharply over marginal cost,” JPMorgan’s people recorded in a summary that reached Bloomberg. The giant financial institution added,

 “This divergence between actual and intrinsic values carries some echoes of the spike higher in late 2017, and at the time this divergence was resolved mostly by a reduction in actual prices.”

Those conclusions are based on Bitcoin’s “cost of production” as calculated by the Wall Street experts taking into account factors such as electricity costs and computing power.

JP Morgan’s hostile stance towards cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin, in particular, is not new. In fact, the bank has been openly skeptic, to say the least about digital assets since it first noticed them. But sometimes that skepticism has turned into attacks. Jamie Dimon, as bank’s officer, is on the record calling BTC “a fraud” in 2017. Then he went back a little by saying that he doesn’t care about it.

Ironically, the bank is launched a digital currency of its own. It went online last February, but the financial giant insists that it’s not a cryptocurrency.

What should you make of JP Morgan’s view on Bitcoin’s value? Probably nothing. The bank is just doubling down on its default posture on Bitcoin. And throwing around a few numbers about power costs and computing power doesn’t mean they’ve nailed the market’s sentiment down.

Outlook

Let’s not forget that Wall Street is populated with the geniuses that gave us all the 2008 global crisis which was so bad that it literally prompted the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto to come up with a financial instrument that would allow us all to do away with Wall Street and the world’s banks. That’s how Bitcoin came about.

Time is the ultimate test. We’re not saying that the next bullish run on the cryptocurrency market is here already. It’s still early to be sure about that, but the signs are encouraging. But even if it’s not, a new bullish market will happen sooner o later, and JP Morgan will fail to see it coming, as usual.

It’s up to you to decide if JP Morgan is right or not on this subject. But before you choose, it would be wise to review the bank’s analysts’ track record when it comes to forecasts in the cryptosphere.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.