J.P. Morgan has taken another significant step into blockchain-based finance after arranging a $50 million commercial paper issuance for Galaxy Digital Holdings on the Solana network.
The move marks one of the earliest occasions in which a U.S. corporate debt instrument has been issued and settled entirely on a public blockchain.
The offering was created as a tokenized short-term corporate bond, with J.P. Morgan developing the blockchain-based representation of the asset and managing the primary issuance process.
The sale included participation from Franklin Templeton and Coinbase, while issuance and redemption will be processed in USDC, Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Jason Urban, Galaxy’s global head of trading, said the agreement demonstrates the company’s long-term vision for blockchain-based finance, noting, “We’re putting into practice the model we’ve long believed in: open, programmable infrastructure that supports institutional-grade financial products.”
Institutions Push Further Into Tokenized Debt
The tokenized commercial bond market remains relatively small, yet it is expanding as institutions experiment with faster, cheaper ways to issue debt.
Tokenization allows issuers to remove layers of intermediaries from the settlement process, meaning transactions can be completed in minutes instead of days.
Analysts expect that the tokenized bond market — spanning corporate, municipal, and sovereign issuances — could reach a market capitalization of $300 billion by the end of the decade.
For financial institutions, the appeal lies in lower costs, instant settlement, and increased transparency, especially as more asset managers and banks look to migrate parts of their operations to blockchain infrastructure.
China and Hong Kong Accelerate Their Onchain Bond Strategies
While Western markets are still experimenting with early-stage tokenized debt deals, Hong Kong and mainland China have been moving forward with large-scale launches.
Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority has identified tokenization as a central pillar of its long-term financial strategy, laying out a five-year plan to bring bonds and physical assets onto blockchain systems by 2030.
Regulators in the city argue that onchain settlement improves cross-border transaction efficiency and positions Hong Kong to integrate artificial intelligence into the broader financial system.
Meanwhile, mainland China has stepped further into sovereign-scale tokenization.
In November, Hua Xia Bank issued a 4.5 billion yuan tranche of tokenized bonds, valued at approximately $600 million.
The offering was settled entirely in the digital yuan, China’s central bank digital currency, and featured a yield of 1.84%.
The digital yuan has been in development since 2014, and its growing use in large institutional transactions signals Beijing’s intention to make blockchain-powered financial infrastructure a national priority.
Tokenization Continues Gaining Traction Worldwide
Real-world asset tokenization has rapidly expanded across multiple jurisdictions.
The global market capitalization of tokenized assets now exceeds $18 billion, spanning government bonds, money market funds, commodities, and other financial products.
Financial institutions emphasize that the technology allows markets to operate around the clock, with faster settlement and greater transparency.
As tokenized commercial debt proves successful in pilot programs and regulated environments, more issuers are expected to adopt onchain models to reduce overhead and access global liquidity.
J.P. Morgan’s partnership with Galaxy Digital provides another example of how established Wall Street firms are experimenting with public blockchain networks rather than limiting tokenization to private, permissioned systems.
For the crypto and traditional finance sectors, the deal reinforces the view that tokenization will play a central role in reshaping capital markets in the coming years.
