JPMorgan Marks One of the Earliest Blockchain-Based Debt Issuances

JPMorgan has successfully arranged a U.S. commercial paper issuance on the Solana blockchain.

The issuance, performed for Galaxy Digital Holdings and purchased by Coinbase and Franklin Templeton, marks one of the earliest debt issuances ever executed on a public blockchain, the banking giant said in a Thursday (Dec. 11) news release.

It’s also one of the first debt issuances in the U.S. to employ the blockchain to issue and service securities, “a significant milestone for financial markets globally,” the release added.

J.P. Morgan served as arranger, created the on-chain U.S. commercial paper (USCP) token and facilitated the delivery-versus-payment settlement of the primary issuance, the release said Both the issuance and redemption proceeds will be paid in USDC stablecoins issued by Circle, which the bank says is another first for the USCP space.

“Today’s transaction is an important step toward understanding the role blockchain will play in the future of financial markets,” said Scott Lucas, head of markets digital assets, J.P. Morgan.

“This trade demonstrates institutional appetite for digital assets and our capability to securely bring new instruments on-chain using Solana. As a client-centric business, we remain focused on meeting the evolving demand for digital asset exposure while preserving the integrity of traditional markets.”

The release added that this is Galaxy’s first commercial paper issuance, with the on-chain USCP format bolstering the company’s short-term funding capabilities and letting it access a growing cohort of institutional investors who are integrating blockchain-based money-market instruments into their portfolios.

This is all happening at a time when, as PYMNTS noted in a recent report, blockchain technology is starting to shift from its status as a crypto-specific concept into a potential component of core banking infrastructure.

“Once the domain of startups, it is now part of how global institutions such as Citi, J.P. Morgan, Visa and others are exploring the future of payments and liquidity management,” that report said. “From tokenized deposits and programmable payments to the settlement of digital assets, the technology previously seen as a niche outlier is increasingly being considered as part of the operating system for modern finance.”

As the landscape transitions from proof of concept to production, blockchain technology is becoming woven into the tissue that connects payments, deposits and markets — one component of a shared digital architecture that provides new efficiency while upholding the trust on which global finance relies, the report added.