JPMorgan hires former Goldman Sachs exec for Kinexys. Here is why he believes tokenization is only half the battle
JPMorgan has hired former Goldman Sachs crypto executive Oliver Harris to lead its blockchain division Kinexys, marking a return to the bank as it expands its digital asset strategy. Harris previously worked at both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs on early blockchain and tokenization efforts before launching Arda, a startup aimed at making real estate assets programmable. His appointment comes as large banks invest more heavily in blockchain systems that aim to speed up settlement and reshape how assets move across markets. Yet Harris has in the past struck a cautious tone on one of the industrys central ideas. “Tokenization does not equal liquidity,” he said during a panel at Consensus Toronto last year, pushing back on the notion that putting assets onchain automatically makes them easier to trade. Instead, he has argued that deeper structural changes are needed. In the same discussion, Harris pointed to the importance of building a unified system for moving value. “I get more interested about global settlement layer, where you can merge money, assets and data onto one software platform,” he said. That approach shifts the focus from simply digitizing assets to reworking the infrastructure behind them. Harris described a future where legacy financial systems are replaced or streamlined