JPMorgan Chase Strategically Invests in Blockchain-focused TRM Labs

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  • This invest­ment high­lights the sig­nif­i­cance finan­cial insti­tu­tions invest­ing in cryp­to tech­nol­o­gy to mit­i­gate asso­ci­at­ed risks, Este­ban Cas­taño, co-founder and CEO of TRM, said to Blockworks
  • TRM’s vision aligns with JPMorgan’s ambi­tions to build com­pli­ant and secure blockchain prod­ucts, Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx by JPMor­gan, said in a statement

Blockchain intel­li­gence com­pa­ny TRM Labs has added JPMor­gan Chase & Co. to its list of investors after the bank announced its strate­gic invest­ment on Monday.

The total amount invest­ed by JPMor­gan was not dis­closed, and nei­ther orga­ni­za­tion was avail­able for imme­di­ate comment.

TRM pro­vides blockchain intel­li­gence to help tra­di­tion­al finan­cial insti­tu­tions as well as cryp­to-focused busi­ness­es and pub­lic agen­cies ana­lyze and man­age cryp­to-relat­ed fraud and crime.

“I think it shows that finan­cial insti­tu­tions are not invest­ing in just cryp­to and poten­tial use cas­es but the tech­nol­o­gy to mit­i­gate any asso­ci­at­ed risks,” Este­ban Cas­taño, co-founder and CEO of TRM, said to Block­works. “It reflects the long term mind­ed­ness of the indus­try and fig­ur­ing out what’s the right answer for cryp­to in terms of risk man­age­ment, trust and safety.”

The com­pa­ny was found­ed in 2017 and recent­ly closed its $60 mil­lion Series B in Decem­ber 2021. The round at the time was led by Tiger Glob­al and includ­ed oth­er major investors and finan­cial play­ers includ­ing Amer­i­can Express’ Amex Ven­tures, Citi Ven­tures, Pay­Pal Ven­tures, Visal, Block (for­mer­ly Square Inc.) and Jump Capital.

“Peo­ple often cite that finan­cial insti­tu­tions are ‘here’ and I think that’s more true now than ever before,” Cas­taño said. “Today we see count­less finan­cial insti­tu­tions that have tan­gi­ble projects in flight for cryp­to relat­ed projects and ser­vices and they’re mak­ing invest­ments in risk man­age­ment infra­struc­ture so those prod­ucts can be suc­cess­ful, trust­ed and safe for consumers.”

JPMor­gan has spent the last six years explor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties and applic­a­bil­i­ty of blockchain tech­nol­o­gy, Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx by JPMor­gan, said in a state­ment. TRM’s vision aligns with JPMorgan’s ambi­tions to build com­pli­ant and secure blockchain prod­ucts, Farooq added.

Ear­li­er this month, JPMor­gan took a jump into the meta­verse after launch­ing a vir­tu­al lounge in the pop­u­lar blockchain-based meta­verse Decen­tra­land. The “Onyx lounge” was unveiled with a report from the bank out­lin­ing meta­verse-relat­ed growth oppor­tu­ni­ties, Block­works pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed.

Sep­a­rate­ly, two JPMor­gan research ana­lysts Ken­neth Wor­thing­ton and Regi­nald Smith said in a report they see 2022 poten­tial­ly as “the year of the blockchain bridge…or the year of finan­cial tok­eniza­tion.” The ana­lysts also said they expect the evo­lu­tion of cryp­to mar­kets to accel­er­ate this year, par­tic­u­lar­ly for finan­cial ser­vices, Block­works report­ed in January.

“Trust and safe­ty is a pre­req­ui­site for cryp­to to be suc­cess­ful in the long run,” Cas­taño said. “Blockchain intel­li­gence builds greater trust and safe­ty and enables cryp­to to become the next dom­i­nant finan­cial sys­tem of the world.”


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  • Jacque­lyn Melinek
    Jacque­lyn Melinek is a New York-based reporter cov­er­ing fund­ing, decen­tral­ized finance (DeFi) and decen­tral­ized autonomous orga­ni­za­tions (DAOs). She pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed on ener­gy mar­kets for S&P Glob­al Platts and Bloomberg News and is pub­lished in over 65 news out­lets. She grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Chapel Hill with a degree in Media and Journalism. 

    Con­tact Jacque­lyn via email at [email pro­tect­ed]

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