Mastercard and JPMorgan have joined forces for a new business-to-business cross-border payment solution. Mutual customers of Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN) and JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments will now be able to settle transactions through a single application programming interface (API) integration.
MTN connects with Kinexys
Thanks to the MTN and Kinexys linkup, MTN will provide enhanced payment availability while reducing “time zone friction” and increasing transparency and settlement speed.
“The value proposition of commercial transaction venues is enhanced by the availability of commercial bank payment rails that can natively integrate with any digital marketplace or platform,” Kinexys by J.P. Morgan co-head Naveen Mallela said in a statement.
MTN offers a suite of blockchain-based tools that will take advantage of Kinexys Digital Payments’ payment rail for real-time transfers. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets, explained:
“For years, both Mastercard and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan have been committed to innovating for the future of digital asset and commercial infrastructure. […] We are excited about this integration and the new use cases it will bring to life.”
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Kinexys has big plans
Kinexys Digital Payments originated in 2020 as Onyx, the first bank-led blockchain platform powered by the dollar-pegged JPM Coin. It was designed for cross-border transfers. The coin initially rankled the crypto community, but it found a ready market among financial institutions.
Goldman Sachs was an early adopter of JPM Coin, and central and commercial banks in India and the Middle East soon followed suit. The platform was expanded to euro-denominated payments in June 2023 and saw $1 billion in daily transactions by October of that year. According to JPMorgan, that figure has since risen to $2 billion daily.
Onyx’s rebranding to Kinexys was announced on Nov. 6. At the same time, JPMorgan said it would integrate Kinexys with JPMorgan FX Services to enable onchain foreign exchange settlements, beginning with the US dollar and euro.
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Kinexys also released a white paper detailing a proof-of-concept of its onchain enterprise privacy, identity and composability on Nov. 6.
Mastercard announced it was testing the MTN in June 2023. Its first live test occurred in May 2024, when Mastercard and Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong ran a proof-of-concept pilot that tokenized carbon credits within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.
MTN had earlier tested the use of wrapped central bank digital currencies with the Reserve Bank of Australia.
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