JPMorgan Adds 56 Blockchain-Related Jobs With Renewed Focus On JPM Coin

What Happened: Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM has amped up its recruitment for blockchain-related jobs amidst the ongoing crypto boom.

According to the company’s website, JPMorgan has 56 open blockchain-related positions – a number that exceeds most firms in the space.

A vast majority of the job openings were for the blockchain developers based in Bangalore and Singapore, which is likely related to the Onyx division that the bank launched last year.

Onyx was launched in October 2020 to oversee the development of JP Morgan’s wholesale payments token, JPM Coin.

Why It Matters: According to reports from a crypto publication Coindesk, Onyx was initially created with around 100 employees as a business unit that would explore blockchain technology becoming commercially viable.

“We are launching Onyx because we believe we are shifting to a period of commercialization of those technologies, moving from research and development to something that can become a real business,” the executive said at the time.

JPM coin was designed to speed up transactions related to interbank transactions and bond payments. The token was built on Quorum, a private Ethereum-based blockchain development by JPMorgan, later acquired by Ethereum’s main blockchain developer Consensys.

The new job listings might suggest a renewed focus on JPM Coin and blockchain development functions across the bank’s network.

What Else: JPMorgan’s blockchain recruitment far outpaces several other wall street giants that have announced their entry into crypto recently.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp BK that recently announced crypto custody had four open blockchain positions, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS and Morgan Stanley MS each had two.