JPMorgan Becomes First Bank To Branch Out Into The Metaverse
As it is, the metaverse is more optimized for gaming and other recreational activities—but JPMorgan has high, calculated hopes of the virtual world’s ability to fulfill day-to-day services just as well as in real life.
The major US bank is so convinced that it has set the ball rolling and opened an explorative lounge in 3D virtual world Decentraland, becoming the first bank to enter this realm.
The new Onyx Lounge, named after JPMorgan’s array of Ethereum-focused services, is a whisper of all the possibilities the bank believes businesses can achieve in the metaverse. Separately, it’s published a whitepaper outlining several of these opportunities.
“In time, the virtual real estate market could start seeing services much like in the physical world, including credit, mortgages and rental agreements,” the bank describes in the document.
As opposed to just jumping onto a buzzword, JPMorgan seems set on laying out a serious foundation in the metaverse, describing its intent to “play a major role” in the virtual sphere. It certainly sees itself performing similar activities in the metaverse, which it says is akin to the physical world in that it also has its own communities, GDP, and currencies.
The virtual arm of JPMorgan can very plausibly hand out loans to entrepreneurs hoping to buy property or launch a business in the metaverse, open digital wallets, authenticate accounts, or provide foreign exchange services, to name just a few options.
“We believe the existing virtual gaming landscape (each virtual world with its own population, GDP, in-game currency and digital assets) has elements that parallel the existing global economy,” JPMorgan elaborates.
“This is where our long-standing core competencies in cross-border payments, foreign exchange, financial assets creation, trading and safekeeping, in addition to our at-scale consumer foothold, can play a major role in the metaverse.”
Chilling in JPMorgan's metaverse lounge in Decentraland
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) February 15, 2022
They have a Tiger pic.twitter.com/LcTdaLm3Yg
