J.P. Morgan the first Metaverse Bank releases White Paper

J.P. Morgan has become the first Wall Street bank to open in the Metaverse, having launched an investors lounge called Onyx in Decentraland, a decentralised Metaverse platform. The Onyx Lounge is built-in the Metajuku part of Decentraland. It features a circling tiger and a digital portrait of the CEO of J.P. Morgan. Upstairs, visitors can view a presentation on cryptocurrency economics.

The Metajuka District was created by Republic Realm and was inspired by the Harajuku, Tokyo known as the centre of Japanese street fashion. Decentraland’s Metajuka is a pedestrian-friendly virtual shopping district that was purchased for $913,000 by Republic Realm in 2021 and features virtual fashion shops in 16,000 square feet of digital land. When you visit the Metajuka district the Onyx Lounge is one of the first things you see.

The Onyx Lounge is named after J.P. Morgan’s Ethereum-based suite of products and opened alongside the release of a paper entitled “Opportunities in the Metaverse “. The paper discussed how businesses could explore the Metaverse and seize opportunities whilst avoiding this new sphere’s hype. J.P. Morgan envisages a new world of interaction through digital avatars where people work, play and socialise. They hypothesise about the risk of investing in the Metaverse against being left behind in the digital landscape. It introduces the Metaverse to business leaders and compares web 2.0 and web 3.0 strategies of Metaverse platforms.

“The Metaverse will likely infiltrate every sector in some way in the coming years, with the market opportunity estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues.”

J.P. Morgan

The paper reports that between June and December, virtual land doubled on decentralised platforms (monitoring four Metaverses: Decentraland, The Sandbox, Somnium Space and Cryptovoxels). J.P. Morgan highlights individual creators using Web 3.0 technology as the driving force behind the new metaverse economy. They introduce Metanomics (Metaverse Economics) and the creation of an avatar led meta-economy where advertising and marketing are one of the largest sectors. They identify gaming, digital gambling, sports betting and casinos as being ideally placed to capitalise and fuel the transition from cash to crypto.

“This democratic ownership economy coupled with the possibility of interoperability could unlock immense economic opportunities, whereby digital goods and services are no longer captive to a singular gaming platform or brand.”

J.P. Morgan

Metaverse banking and facilitating crypto exchange, virtual mortgages, and digital asset-backed financing could become a booming sector. J.P. Morgan sees the interoperability and the integration of crypto payments and NFTs on centralised platforms as a critical element of Metaverse’s commercial infrastructure. The paper notes that Decentralised Finance (DeFi) could become the next-generation financing and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) could become financiers.

The Onyx Lounge provides a base for J.P. Morgan to explore the Metaverse and its potential for corporate and business clients alike. The Onyx will allow customers to create digital avatars, build virtual rooms and travel. J.P. Morgan can facilitate many of the banking needs needed for Metaverse travel such as crypto exchange through the Onyx. You can visit the Onyx by navigating your avatar to the Metajuku District in Decentraland.