JP Morgan is first bank to enter the metaverse with virtual lounge

J.P. Morgan opened up an “Onyx lounge” in the metaverse on Tuesday, a virtual lounge in the blockchain-based world of Decentraland.

Within Decentraland, users can buy virtual plots of land in the form of NFTs and make purchases using cryptocurrency backed by the Ethereum blockchain.

Users have described their experience in the Onyx lounge on Twitter, noting the picture of CEO Jamie Dimon and a tiger lurking around.

On top of that, the company released a paper explaining the opportunities they are exploring in the metaverse.

The report points out that J.P. Morgan can operate like a bank in the virtual world much like it does in the real world, since the virtual worlds in the metaverse have their own population, GDP and currencies. Similar to its role as a bank, it can facilitate crossborder payments, foreign exchange, financial assets creation, trading and safekeeping.

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Because of these possibilities, J.P. Morgan plans to “play a major role in the metaverse,” the report says. More specifically, the bank can help tackle issues like account validation, transaction status and fraud prevention, similar to how it does with real-world clients.

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The company also wants to serve content creators who plan on commercializing their creations within the metaverse, whether its lending money to finance them or establishing virtual wallets for them to collect commission.

The lounge could provide a foothold for J.P. Morgan to explore its role in the digital world.

Michelle Shen is a Money & Tech Digital Reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.