JPMorgan becomes first major bank to open a metaverse presence

The financial holding JPMorgan opened a salon in the Decentraland metaverse. The virtual location was named Onyx in honour of the financial institution’s blockchain platform.

Chilling in JPMorgan’s metaverse lounge in Decentraland

They have a Tiger pic.twitter.com/LcTdaLm3Yg

— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) February 15, 2022

The bank unveiled the lounge area in the Metajuku mall together with a report, in which specialists analyzed business opportunities in this segment. The company said it had become the first major enterprise from the financial sector represented in the virtual space.

«Metaverses are likely to permeate every sector in the coming years in some way, and market opportunities are estimated at more than $1 trillion in annual revenue. As a result, we are seeing companies of all shapes and sizes enter the space, including Walmart, Nike, Gap, Verizon, Hulu, PwC, Adidas, Atari and others», the report says.

JPMorgan noted that spending on virtual goods reached $54 billion a year. Over the six-month period in 2021, the average price of land in metaverses doubled.

«It jumped from $6,000 in June to $12,000 by December in four major Web 3.0 metaverses,» the bank’s specialists said.

According to their forecast, by 2027 spending on in-game advertising in the sector will reach $18.41 billion.

The JPMorgan team believes all this will lead to the formation of a digital economy and the emergence of financial products tailored to metaverses.

«We believe that the existing virtual gaming landscape has elements parallel to those operating in the global economy. Therefore our core competencies in cross-border payments, currency exchange, creation of financial assets, trading and custody can play an important role in metaverses», — JPMorgan says.

Bank of America named metaverses as a potential driver of broad adoption of cryptocurrencies as a payment instrument.