JP Morgan has rebranded its Onyx blockchain unit to Kinexys by JP Morgan. The move was announced today by Umar Farooq, the global co-head of JP Morgan payments during the Singapore Fintech Festival.

As we previously reported, the blockchain platform has executed more than $1.5 trillion in notional value since launch, with current volumes exceeding $2 billion daily. That’s still tiny compared to the $10 trillion in conventional payments that the bank processes daily.

The new name combines the concepts of “kinetic” and “connection”, to reflect the worldwide movement of money, assets and financial information using the efficiencies of DLT.

The highest profile Onyx solution is the blockchain based bank account system, JPM Coin Systems, which enables corporates to move money between JP Morgan accounts in different countries, in real time and 24/7. That is now rebranded to Kinexys Digital Payments. Brevan Howard Digital Assets is a new client of the solution.

JP Morgan is working on integrating Kinexys Digital Payments with JP Morgan FX Services to enable FX settlement on chain, initially in US dollars and euros. It expects to have the functionality available by the first quarter.

Onyx Digital Assets, now Kinexys Digital Assets, is an umbrella for multiple solutions that include intraday repo, tokenized collateral and bond issuance. Singapore’s OCBC is the latest bank to start using the repo solution.

Onyx’s first product was Liink, the blockchain based payments messaging network that enables sharing of data about conventional payments to reduce delays because of compliance of other queries. It is renamed to Kinexys Liink.

One of the most logical moves is the rebranding of the slightly awkward sounding Blockchain Launch to Kinexys Labs.

Additionally, Kinexys Digital Assets and Kinexys Labs is running a proof of concept for on-chain privacy, identity and composability.

Why rebrand?

The bank is spinning the rebrand as a positive step, as one would expect. However, the trigger is likely trademark issues. Given Onyx is a generic word, it would encounter potential challenges. A company that was already using the name might have objected to trademark applications or even alleged infringement.

Last June the bank applied for trademarks for Onyx Digital Payments and Onyx Digital Assets. The records show the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiner sent initial refusals for the trademarks on various grounds, including partial overlaps with existing trademarks for similar use cases and other applications that pre-dated these applications. Given JP Morgan’s lawyers didn’t respond, the applications were treated as abandoned.

There’s also an OnyxCoin, as in a cryptocurrency, something the bank would likely not want to be confused with.

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As part of the Singapore Fintech Festival, Amazon is involved in a blockchain tokenization simulation in collaboration with stablecoin firm StraitsX and NTT Digital.

Typically Amazon Marketplace sellers receive payments every 14 days, but it can stretch to 90 days under certain circumstances. These sellers account for the majority of Amazon sales. The simulation involved tokenizing these receivables and placing them on an exchange where lenders can buy them at a small discount. This kind of tokenized trade finance would allow the marketplace sellers to receive money faster.

In the simulation, those sellers receive the StraitsX XSGD stablecoin wrapped as Purpose Bound Money (PBM). The wrapper can include conditions for the money’s usage or simply ensure compliance with regulations such as KYC.

However, this is purely a simulation, not a planned Amazon solution.

Several years ago, supply chain finance firm TradeShift envisaged a similar platform but didn’t launch it. Other startups are using blockchain to tokenize trade credit. Tokenization startup Centrifuge initially was dedicated to SME trade finance but has substantially diversified away from the asset class. Others such as Credix have stepped in to fill the gap, although it’s now more focused on SME buy now, pay later (BNPL).

Amazon, StraitsX and NTT Digital initiatives

Last year as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Orchid, Amazon took part in ecommerce escrow payment experiments with FAZZ and Grab. In other words, the client makes the payment, but Amazon only receives the payment once the goods are delivered.

This week StraitsX also announced a collaboration with Alipay+ in which Singapore GrabPay merchants can receive instant settlement for purchases made by tourists. It applies to tourists that pay with Alipay+ linked foreign wallets, with the merchant receiving StraitsX’s XSGD stablecoin.

Meanwhile, NTT Digital, a subsidiary of telecoms firm NTT Docomo, provided its scramberry wallet suite for the Amazon seller simulation. It unveiled the web3 wallet in March, but launched it for corporate customers in September. It now supports overseas users as well.

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As part of its work on central bank digital currency (CBDC), China has always aimed to be inclusive. Hence, it wants the digital RMB to be usable by people who either don’t use smartphones or have unreliable internet connectivity. That includes the elderly and tourists who may not want to use the eCNY smartphone wallet.

In 2021 it launched digital hardware wallets which look like prepaid debit cards. Now the central bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute has unveiled an upgraded version of the cards with improved usability.

The 2021 iteration below included buttons so that users could enter the payment amount and the e-ink visual display was small. E-ink is the same technology used in Amazon Kindle readers.

Earlier this year, the central bank released new tourist friendly cards (below).

The latest cards are described as touchable, visual and scannable. They’re touchable because users can simply touch the cards against a point of sale device for payment, in the same way as you would any other payment card, using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.

They’re visual because the same area showing the QR code (top picture) updates to display the amount paid and the card balance. Notably, the textual description of ‘Payment’ and ‘Balance’ are in both English and Mandarin to help tourists.

Plus, the cards are scannable by a merchant using the dynamic QR code. That means the card works for smaller merchants that don’t have to have a terminal that supports NFC, such as street vendors using their mobile phones.

So far there are seven visual design options for the card.

Other digital RMB news

In related news, the eCNY has been embedded into Huawei’s mobile operating system. It’s one thing having government influence over an app, but involvement with the operating system will raise further privacy concerns. Plus, the international aviation association IATA plans to integrate the digital renminbi into its settlement system to support travel agents who want to pay airlines.

Statistics revealed last month show that so far one in eight Chinese people has a digital RMB wallet.

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