Why JPMorgan and Shopify Are Rolling Out New Products on Ethereum Layer 2 Base - Ep. 855

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Tuesday, JPMorgan announced that its blockchain unit is launching JPMD, a USD deposit token for institutional clients, on Base. That’s right: the world’s biggest bank by assets and the 12th largest company by market cap is putting real dollars onchain. JPMD isn’t quite a stablecoin, but it’s close. It represents actual dollar deposits at JPMorgan and will be used by institutional clients for blockchain-based transactions. The bank plans to run a pilot over the coming months and eventually expand it to other user groups and currencies, pending regulatory approval. To understand what this means for the broader crypto ecosystem (and why JPMorgan chose Base), we brought on Jesse Pollak, head of Base and Coinbase Wallet. In this episode, Jesse explains: Why JPMorgan (and Shopify) chose Base What deposit tokens are, and how they differ from stablecoins Why infrastructure is finally “ready” for institutions How Base scaled from 2.5 million to 35 million gas/sec What’s next for Coinbase users who’ll have one-tap access to onchain assets And Jesse’s response to the critics who said that Coinbase doesn’t give enough credit to Ethereum Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Ledn FalconX Jesse Pollak, Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet Unchained: JPMorgan to Pilot ‘JPMD’ Token on Base Coinbase and Amex Team Up on Bitcoin Card as Exchange Reveals Broad Expansion Plans Comments on Bloomberg by Naveen Mallela, global co-head of the bank's blockchain division Kinexys by JPMorgan Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 🏦 1:49 What JPMD actually is 🔧 4:26 Why Jesse believes infrastructure is finally ready for institutional adoption 📊 7:03 Whether Base can handle global scale 💵 9:24 How JPMorgan plans to use deposit tokens in real-world blockchain transactions ⚖️ 11:22 Whether deposit tokens are a better model than stablecoins 🛠️ 16:59 Why JPMorgan chose to launch on Base instead of other chains 📉 19:00 How recent events served as a wake-up call for fintech and commerce 📲 22:22 Why Jesse is hyped about seamless access to onchain assets inside Coinbase 📈 25:47 How Coinbase plans to manage the chaos of token pumps and dumps 🌐 27:54 Jesse’s take on the criticism that Coinbase doesn’t show Ethereum enough love Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is like the thing that gets me out of bed every morning is getting to build this future with people,
0:05.1	whether it's the team of JPMorgan or the team of Shopify or any of the other small builders or big builders that we get to work with.
0:13.1	Like the tools are finally ready. And now it's just about who can apply them and who can use them to make their businesses work better.
0:24.7	Hi, everyone. Look at the Unchained. You're no hype resource for all things, crypto. I'm your host,
0:29.2	Laura Shin. We love reading comments from our listeners. In every episode, we feature a few.
0:34.5	Today, we have a comment responding to the latest episode about hyperliquid
0:37.6	with Arthur Hayes and Hansen Beringer. On X, FOMOSynthesis wrote, great episode guys, I agree
0:43.5	that if the team pulls off the HIP3 vision, then it would be the holy grail of crypto, obviously
0:48.9	rooting for that outcome. You can watch the hyperliquid episode on YouTube or listen anywhere you
0:53.9	get your podcasts.
0:55.3	And if you want your comment featured, write a review of the podcast overall or leave a comment on the video on YouTube, Procester, or X.
1:02.5	This is the June 20th, 2025 episode of Unchained.
1:06.3	Lutton is a leading platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, offering a secure and transparent way to unlock liquidity without selling your Bitcoin.
1:15.7	Issuing loans since 2018 and earning over 1,000 trust-pilot reviews.
1:21.2	Learn more at leaden.io.
1:24.0	Imagine an AI that speaks crypto and does the work of a team of analysts.
1:29.4	Introducing Focal by Falcon X, bringing clarity to a world of noise.
1:34.6	Visit askfocal.com.
1:37.1	Well, today's guest is Jesse Pollack, head of base and Coinbase wallet.
1:41.3	Welcome, Jesse.
1:42.4	Hey, Laura. Thanks for having me.
1:44.0	Super excited to be here. And hello, everybody who's on the live stream
	...

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