For the brief amount of time it has been around, developing the technology to digitize and tokenize securities has been dominated by startups like Strike Derivatives, Nchain, and Templum. The closest major companies have come to having a presence is through Overstock.com's subsidiary tZERO, while companies such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Visa have made little effort, and had little success, gaining a foothold in the sector. With the publication of J.P. Morgan Chase applications 20200111159 and 20200151818, this trend looks to be changing.
Application 20200111159 teaches a system that utilizes blockchain to trade stocks digitally while application 20200151818 teaches a system that utilizes blockchain to facilitate debt agreements. With these two applications, J.P. Morgan now has three applications within the past year, and four within the past two years, outpacing Visa and CME at three apiece. Not only is J.P. Morgan now the most prominent major financial institution in the sector, the applications are indicative of a larger trend concerning the bank. About a year and a half ago, J.P. Morgan became the first U.S. bank to successfully test a digital currency. Putting the bank ahead of the French and Russian national bank's own digital currency tests discussed previously.
A trend within the securities tokenization space is that companies are trying to patent entire platforms for the trade of securities, as exemplified by Strike Derivatives and Nchain. Adding together J.P. Morgan's success in testing a digital currency with the aforementioned patent applications, it seems the bank has entered the race for building its own platform. Unlike other companies in the sector though, J.P. Morgan seems to have its eyes set on digitizing every aspect of the financial institution as we know it under a single umbrella. This strategy could be the beginning of a new era in digitization of financial assets, and makes J.P. Morgan the bank to watch for the foreseeable future.
See the rest of the field at the Magic Number® Patent Forecast® and go check out J.P. Morgan's new claims with Patent Matrix®.
