KAREN JOY BACUDO
Finance Editor
J.P. Morgan has added five Asia-Pacific currencies to its Kinexys Blockchain Deposit Accounts, bringing the total to eight.
The new additions are the Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi and Singapore dollar. They join the euro, the British pound, and the US dollar on the bank’s blockchain-based deposit account network for institutional clients.
The expansion broadens the bank’s settlement and foreign exchange offerings in Asia-Pacific, providing clients with round-the-clock transfers in the newly added currencies. The accounts also support on-chain foreign exchange between the new currencies and those already available on the network.
Clients can also use programmable payments across supported currency pairs, allowing treasury and liquidity management actions to be automated and tied more directly to operating needs across markets and time zones.
Client use
JERA Global Markets is the first client to use the yen-denominated blockchain deposit account. The energy trading and optimisation company is using the account to manage intragroup treasury flows and liquidity.
Siang-Chee Chew, Senior Vice President of Finance & Treasury at JERA Global Markets, explained the rationale for the rollout at the client level.
“As a global energy trader operating across commodities, markets and time zones, efficient and resilient treasury infrastructure is critical to supporting our global business and operations. The ability to move JPY on an always-on basis is an important step in modernising treasury flows across our businesses. This initiative supports our focus on operational agility, liquidity optimisation and seamless capital mobility across our global trading platform,” said Chew.
The launch reflects a broader push by large banks to expand the practical use of blockchain-based transaction systems for mainstream corporate and institutional treasury activity. Rather than targeting retail crypto markets, these systems are designed to move deposits and settle transactions between known counterparties within regulated banking structures.
For corporates operating across Europe, North America and Asia, cut-off times in conventional payment and foreign exchange markets can delay funding, intercompany transfers and liquidity allocation. Continuously available accounts can reduce those timing frictions, particularly for treasurers managing cash positions across multiple legal entities and jurisdictions.
Currency reach
J.P. Morgan described the eight-currency network as the broadest available for blockchain-based settlement and on-chain foreign exchange. The addition of the Australian dollar is likely to draw close attention from regional treasurers because it provides continuous access to a currency widely used in trade, commodities and investment flows across Asia-Pacific.
Support for the Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar and renminbi also broadens the network’s relevance for companies with supply chains, funding operations and trading activity linked to Greater China and South-East Asia. Yen access, meanwhile, adds a major reserve and funding currency for financial institutions and multinational groups.
The Kinexys business sits within J.P. Morgan Payments and is part of the bank’s broader digital transaction infrastructure. Since its inception, the platform has processed more than USD $4 trillion in transaction volume, according to the bank, with average daily transactions exceeding USD $7 billion.
Those figures suggest blockchain-based payment rails are moving beyond pilot projects into larger-scale operational use in corporate and institutional banking. Banks and clients have spent several years testing tokenised deposits, programmable transfers and on-chain settlement mechanics, but uptake has often depended on whether the systems could support real treasury workflows at sufficient scale and across useful currency corridors.
The addition of more Asia-Pacific currencies addresses one practical limit that has constrained adoption: narrow currency choice. Treasury teams generally need solutions that work across several major markets rather than one or two isolated jurisdictions, especially if they are to centralise liquidity and move funds between regional hubs without relying on successive local cut-off windows.
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of helping global businesses unlock the strategic benefits of 24/7/365 on-chain settlement and FX, along with programmable payments. We’re building the blockchain infrastructure businesses need to modernize treasury for today’s always-on, dynamic global market. Adding five new Asia-Pacific currencies to the Kinexys Blockchain Deposit Account network underscores our commitment to that mission. We’re excited to continue working with Payoneer, JERA Global Markets and others to help shape the future of financial services,” said Zack Chestnut, Global Head of Commercial at Kinexys by J.P. Morgan.
