JPMorgan leads a $20 million bet on digital asset startup Ownera

Global banking giant JPMorgan is among the entities leading the series A funding round for digital asset startup Ownera. The startup is building digital infrastructure to connect tokenized asset networks with traditional finance world, and has raised $20 million during the funding round.

The move assumes significance coming on the back a severe turmoil in the cryptocurrency market earlier this year, when a series of selloffs tempered prices from record highs.

It should be noted that JPMorgan Chase was among the first of the big banks to place a bet on digital assets last year, even though its chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon had been a vocal critic of bitcoins in the past. In fact, since the meltdown in cryptos, JPMorgan believes there may be 'significant upside' to the digital asset, according to a recent note.  CNBC quoted JPM strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in May this year saying, “past month’s crypto market correction looks more like capitulation relative to last January/February, and going forward, we see upside for Bitcoin and crypto markets more generally.” Now, this funding round signals that traditional finance hasn't abandoned blockchain technology in the crypto winter.

The funding round comes with two new board members: JPMorgan's Scott Lucas, head of markets DLT, and real estate company LRC group's Chairman Nadav Zohar. "This solution has the potential to allow qualified investors access to single assets, portfolios and real estate-based structures in tokenized form, optimizing asset allocation and removing unnecessary friction", Owner's press release quoted Nadav Zohar.