Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan Chase will take a crack at stablecoins

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in an earnings call on Tuesday that the bank will be getting involved in stablecoins — whether he likes it or not. 

According to Investing.com’s transcript of the call, when asked how the U.S. bank is thinking about “utilizing, leveraging, [and] competing” with stablecoins, Dimon said that the company will be involved in both “JPMorgan Depositcoin and Stablecoins to understand it, to be good at it.”

He added that although JPMorgan Chase will be looking into stablecoins, he “[doesn’t] know why you’d want a Stablecoin as opposed to just payment.” 

Dimon added to his response that fintech competitors are “very smart” guys, saying, “They’re trying to figure out a way to create bank accounts and get into payment systems and rewards programs. We have to be cognizant of that, [the] way to be cognizant is to be involved.”

He said JPMorgan Chase is “going to be in it and learning a lot.” 

Stablecoins are a type of crypto asset backed by cash, gold, bonds, or other regulated assets, pegged to fiat value, and are used by investors entering the market to convert their dollars. They're a medium to trade for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoins could be a natural bridge between banks and crypto. Banks see them as a way to accelerate international payments. Crypto sees them as a step toward legitimacy, a way to be simultaneously inside and outside the banking system. Several crypto firms are applying for bank charters, according to an April report in the Wall Street Journal (NWSA).

In June, the bank announced its own USD deposit token called “JPMD” from Kinexys, JPMorgan Chase’s blockchain business unit, to be issued for its pilot on the blockchain Base, according to a release. It said that for now, JPMD will be “a permissioned token” and eventually will become available “exclusively to J.P. Morgan institutional clients.”

In May, JPMorgan Chase announced it was letting its customers buy Bitcoin through the bank — a cryptocurrency Dimon has long been critical of. 

—Michael Barclay contributed to this article.