JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recognized the merit of decentralized finance (defi) and blockchain technologies in his latest annual letter to shareholders, published Monday.
While talking about his companys investments in technology, Dimon said:
Decentralized finance and blockchain are real, new technologies that can be deployed in both public and private fashion, permissioned or not.
The CEO elaborated: “JPMorgan Chase is at the forefront of this innovation. We use a blockchain network called Liink to enable banks to share complex information, and we also use a blockchain to move tokenized U.S. dollar deposits with JPM Coin.”
According to its website, 39 countries are now covered within the Liink network. More than 25 of the worlds leading banks have signed up to participate and over 400 leading institutions have signed letters of intent to join. The global investment bank said that it “established Liink to find more efficient ways to transfer data through custom applications.”
JPMorgan explained that “JPM Coin is a permissioned, shared ledger system that serves as a payment rail and deposit account ledger, enabling participating J.P. Morgan clients to transfer US Dollars held on deposit with J.P. Morgan.” The coin “facilitates real-time value movement, helping to solve common hurdles of traditional cross-border payments,” its website details.
Commenting further about blockchain in his letter to shareholders, Dimon wrote:
We believe there are many uses where a blockchain can replace or improve contracts, data ownership and other enhancements.
Nonetheless, he cautioned that for some purposes, “It is currently too expensive or too slow to be deployed.”
While praising decentralized finance and blockchain technologies, Dimon has not warmed up to cryptocurrency, even after JPMorgan began offering some crypto-related products to clients.
Dimon warned in November last year: “Cryptocurrency has no intrinsic value … I would be very careful.” In October, he said bitcoin was worthless and questioned its limited supply. In May, he advised people to stay away from cryptocurrency.
Last week, a JPMorgan report stated that there is limited upside for crypto markets. However, in February, the firm predicted that the long-term price of bitcoin would reach $150,000. Nonetheless, JPMorgan said global regulation is urgently needed for banks to help clients invest in crypto.