JP Morgan is First Bank to Enter the Metaverse with a Virtual 'Onyx Lounge'

By Michelle Shen

J.P. MORGAN OPENED up an "Onyx lounge" in the metaverse, a virtual lounge in the blockchainbased world of Decentraland.

Within Decentraland, users can buy virtual plots of land in the form of NFTs and make purchases using cryptocurrency backed by the Ethereum blockchain.

Users have described their experience in the Onyx lounge on Twitter, noting the picture of CEO Jamie Dimon and a tiger lurking around.

On top of that, the company released a paper explaining the opportunities they are exploring in the metaverse.

The report points out that J.P. Morgan can operate like a bank in the virtual world much like it does in the real world, since the virtual worlds in the metaverse have their own population, GDP and currencies. Similar to its role as a bank, it can facilitate crossborder payments, foreign exchange, fi nancial assets creation, trading and safekeeping.

Because of these possibilities, J.P. Morgan plans to "play a major role in the metaverse," the report says. More specifi cally, the bank can help tackle issues like account validation, transaction status and fraud prevention, similar to how it does with real-world clients.

The company also wants to serve content creators who plan on commercializing their creations within the metaverse, whether its lending money to fi nance them or establishing virtual wallets for them to collect commission.

The lounge could provide a foothold for J.P. Morgan to explore its role in the digital world. www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/02/15/jpmorgan-bank-joins-metaverse/6803137001 Image credit: blockcrunch.co, hattiesburgamerican.com, https://privatebank. jpmorgan.com