JPMorgan has dipped a toe into the metaverse, becoming the first bank to open a lounge in the Decentraland virtual world.
The bank opened its Onyx lounge - complete with roaming tiger - in blockchain-based Decentraland to coincide with the publication of a paper on the opportunities presented by the metaverse.
With Facebook changing its name to Meta as Mark Zuckerberg bets bid on the Metaverse, JPMorgan's paper suggests that the "opportunities presented by interactive, digital worlds seem limitless".
Says the paper: "The success of building and scaling in the metaverse is dependent on having a robust and flexible financial ecosystem that will allow users to seamlessly connect between the physical and virtual worlds. Our approach to payments and financial infrastructure will allow that interoperability to grow."
Not all banks are convinced by the Metaverse: Starling CEO Anne Boden recently took a dig at Facebook's plans, recalling that in 2006 a bank opened a branch in Second Life, adding: "Fast forward a few years and see how much simpler it proved to be to provide 24/7 human contact via and app."
Read the JPMorgan paper:
Download the document now 4 mb (PDF File)