JPMorgan has carried out the issuance and settlement of a short-term debt instrument for a Galaxy Digital entity using a public blockchain for the first time. Instead of relying on traditional banking and clearing systems, the transaction was executed on the Solana network—a high-speed, publicly accessible blockchain.
The instrument in question was commercial paper, a short-term debt security that companies use to raise financing for several months. JPMorgan issued the paper in digital form, representing it as a dedicated token. In this context, a token is a digital representation of a financial instrument recorded on a blockchain.
The tokenized debt securities were purchased by Coinbase and Franklin Templeton, two major players in the crypto and investment industries. The parties involved did not disclose the exact size of the issuance or the interest terms.
A key feature of the transaction was its fully blockchain-based settlement structure. Both the payment of funds to Galaxy and the subsequent repayment of the obligation are carried out using Circle’s USDC stablecoin. Stablecoins are digital dollars that are fully pegged to the U.S. dollar. This created a rare case in which the issuance, payment, and repayment of a U.S. debt instrument were completed entirely in digital form, without the involvement of traditional banking infrastructure.
This transaction fits into a broader trend. Over the past two years, banks and asset managers worldwide have begun tokenizing selected debt instruments—such as commercial paper, bonds, and structured products—and settling them via blockchains.
In addition, earlier this week JPMorgan launched a tokenized money market fund, MONY, on the Ethereum blockchain with a volume of approximately $100 million. The world’s largest bank is also developing its own blockchain platform and actively collaborating with projects such as Chainlink.