Banks are adopting blockchain technology at an unprecedented scale, utilizing it to upgrade aging infrastructure, slash operational costs, and secure global data—all without ever touching a public cryptocurrency. The Great Divide: Permissioned vs. Public BlockchainsTo understand how banks use blockchain without cryptocurrency, one must first grasp the critical difference between public and permissioned networks. In a permissioned blockchain, there is a central authority or a consortium that explicitly grants access. A prime example is J.P. Morgan’s Onyx platform, which handles billions of dollars in intraday repo transactions and payments using a permissioned blockchain network. By tokenizing these assets on a blockchain, banks can achieve instantaneous, atomic settlement.