JPMorgan Continues Web3 Hiring Spree With a Focus on Payments

Wall Street giant JPMorgan is pushing crypto even further, announcing a new Web3-focused senior position.

The new position will require forging a new path, creating new frameworks and working quickly in the presence of ambiguity. The individual should be focused on understanding customer payment needs in the Web3, Crypto, Fintech and Metaverse space. They will also need to help the bank understand the competitive payments landscape and how to position JPMorgan’s payments business to be competitive.

The appointment comes as the Wall Street bank seeks to position itself as an institutional-grade DeFi player by tokenizing traditional financial instruments to be used as collateral in decentralized funding pools. As an example, JPMorgan partnered with Singapore’s DBS Bank and Marketnode earlier this year to test the use of bonds and tokenized deposits in authorized DeFi liquidity pools.

The tokenization process imposes strict Know-Your-Customer rules on DeFi pools.

In May this year, the bank pioneered a blockchain collateral settlement system, receiving tokenized money market fund shares from asset manager BlackRock Inc. on a private blockchain, the Onyx Digital Assets platform. Collateral is settled internally using the bank’s native digital asset, JPM Coin.

The bank is looking to bring traditional assets into the crypto space

According to LinkedIn, JPMorgan’s new crypto role received 46 applicants, most of whom have at least a bachelor’s degree. In addition to five or more years of financial services experience, applicants should have a deep interest in crypto and a desire to develop in the field. With crypto and Web3 being a relatively new sub-sector in the bank’s 200+ year history, no explicit crypto qualification is needed. Applicants with experience in the Software as a Service, Semiconductor or FinTech industries will be favored.

The bank is attacking Web 3 from a variety of angles, all focused on introducing core banking principles and products into the Web3 ecosystem. It wants to bring the speed and convenience of blockchain technology to traditional financial products and services.