First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has concluded a successful blockchain-based cross-border payments pilot project with JPMorgan’s Onyx Coin Systems, marking another triumph for Onyx in the Middle East. The pilot phase was described as seamless, with rapid response times, according to an official statement.
This achievement follows a similar test in Bahrain, where Bank ABC had been experimenting with the Onyx system and subsequently launched limited services. FAB is actively exploring the opportunities presented by this technology.
JPMorgan’s permissioned distributed ledger, launched in 2020, has been gaining substantial momentum in recent months. Tyrone Lobban, the head of JP Morgan Onyx Digital Assets & Blockchain, stated earlier in the month that the platform presently handles daily transaction volumes ranging from $1 billion to $2 billion.
In addition to its expansion in the Middle East, Onyx has been facilitating euro-denominated payments in Europe since June. In the same month, it introduced interbank USD settlements in India through a consortium of six banks.
On October 11th, the first public trade was settled on JPMorgan’s new Tokenization Collateral Network, which also operates on the Onyx blockchain. Money market fund shares were tokenized and deposited at Barclays Bank to secure a derivatives exchange between JPMorgan and BlackRock.
Other major players in the financial industry are also venturing into blockchain technology. In June, Mastercard revealed it was testing its Multi Token Network, and Citigroup introduced its Citi Token Services in September.
JPMorgan was actively involved in Project Guardian, collaborating with DBS Bank and Marketnode. This initiative, concluded in June, was developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank for International Settlements. It aimed to create a liquidity pool of tokenized bonds and deposits for use in lending and borrowing.
JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, recently emphasized his strong belief in artificial intelligence while expressing skepticism about cryptocurrencies, referring to them as “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”