Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Says Banks Won't Adopt JP Morgan Coin, Customers Better Off Using the Dollar

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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says JP Morgan’s new digital asset is great publicity for the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. But he believes that’s where the coin’s value begins and ends.

At DC Blockchain Summit 2019, Garlinghouse said there’s no chance JPM Coin will reach mass adoption because other banks and financial institutions aren’t interested in using it.

“Let me start by saying I think it’s great for the blockchain and crypto industry to have players like JPM leaning in. Thumbs up, that’s great. That’s the only nice thing I’m going to say about this.

I got asked this last week. I was speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference and somebody asked me – there was a set of headlines about JPM Coin. This guy was from Morgan Stanley who was interviewing me. I said, ‘So is Morgan Stanley going to use JPM Coin?’ He’s like, ‘Probably not.’

Well, is City going to use JPM Coin? Is Bank of America going to use JPM Coin? Is PNC? The answer is no.

And so, does that mean we’re going to have all these different coins? And does that mean we’re back to where we are – where there’s a lack of interoperability? I don’t get it.”

In addition, Garlinghouse says he’s struggling to find a coherent use case for JPM Coin, even if the goal is to have it used internally at JP Morgan.

“One more quick thing on JPM Coin. So let’s think about this. JPM Coin, they announced for institutional customers, if you give them a dollar deposit, they’ll give you a JPM Coin that you then can move within the JPM Ledger. Wait a minute. Just use the dollar. I really don’t understand. If you’re just moving it within the JPM Ledger, and it has to be dollar-to-dollar, one-to-one backing, I don’t understand what problem that solves.”

Last month, reports surfaced that JP Morgan is starting a new trial that will utilize the company’s digital asset, JP Morgan Coin, to settle transactions with its wholesale business clients. The blockchain-based payments solution will initially be tested with a “tiny fraction” of the company’s clientele.

Image via Kent Wang/Flickr