NEW YORK CITY — JP Morgan is creating its own cryptocurrency, and is becoming the first major U.S. bank to do so.<br /><br />According to CNBC, the nation's largest bank, JP Morgan Chase, announced on Thursday that it would be launching its own cryptocurrency called the JPM coin, which has a fixed value redeemable for $1.<br /><br />The coin is designed to be used by big institutional customers such as corporations, banks, and broker-dealers rather than individuals.<br /><br />According to the bank's head of blockchain projects, the digital token is meant to speed up international payments, which traditionally take a day or more to settle via wire transfer. It can also be used for securities transactions and treasury services.<br /><br />When clients want to move dollars on the bank's Quorum blockchain system, money in their accounts is converted to JPM coins.<br /><br />According to Fox Business, 'the tokens are transferred and instantaneously redeemed' for the equivalent amount of dollars.<br /><br />The New York Times reports that JP Morgan hopes to increase the coin's versatility, perhaps expanding in the future to represent currencies other than the dollar.
