Explore the big picture behind Kinexys with Kara Kennedy, Global Head of Kinexys Market Development, as she shares why on-chain finance is moving from experimental to foundational and why this moment represents a true inflection point for scale across the financial industry. In conversation with Stephanie Lok, Product Lead on Kinexys Digital Assets, Kara reflects on balancing speed with execution, fostering teams that embrace learning and adaptability, and building trusted, next-generation financial infrastructure. She also shares lessons from her leadership journey, the principles guiding her decision-making, and the mindset required to navigate one of the fastest-moving spaces in finance and technology. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information’s accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments, and may not be construed as such. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.© 2025 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All Rights Reserved.
Explore the big picture behind Kinexys with Kara Kennedy, Global Head of Kinexys Market Development, as she shares why on-chain finance is moving from experimental to foundational and why this moment represents a true inflection point for scale across the financial industry.
In conversation with Stephanie Lok, Product Lead on Kinexys Digital Assets, Kara reflects on balancing speed with execution, fostering teams that embrace learning and adaptability, and building trusted, next-generation financial infrastructure.
She also shares lessons from her leadership journey, the principles guiding her decision-making, and the mindset required to navigate one of the fastest-moving spaces in finance and technology.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information’s accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments, and may not be construed as such. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.© 2025 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All Rights Reserved.
Narrator (00:02):
Welcome to Pay It Forward, a podcast by J.P. Morgan Payments for J.P. Morgan Payments. Get to know our business and gain a better understanding of where we sit at the intersection of technology and finance. Did you know we move over $10 trillion dollars globally each day through over 170 countries and 120 currencies at more than 5,000 transactions per second? (1) Join us as we take you inside the stories, technology, and people that make it all happen.
Stephanie Lok (00:39):
Welcome to Pay It Forward, I'm Stephanie Lok, your host, and I'm a product lead on Kinexys Digital Assets. Today, I am thrilled to be joined by Kara Kennedy, Global Head of Kinexys Market Development. Kara, welcome to the show.
Kara Kennedy (00:57):
Hi, Stephanie. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm Kara Kennedy. I'm Global Head of Kinexys Market Development. Kinexys is a provider of blockchain products and solutions which unlock new efficiencies and capabilities across payments, assets, and information and I used to lead the Kinexys Digital Assets team, which is focused on solutions to unlock greater efficiency and utility in assets through tokenization and the use of blockchain infrastructure.
Stephanie Lok (01:26):
Awesome. And so maybe for some of the listeners who are new to the space, how would you explain what blockchain is and how that foundation really enables digital assets specifically?
Kara Kennedy (01:37):
Sure. So thinking about this in simple terms. A blockchain is a form of distributed database which is used for record keeping and specifically enables multiple parties to rely on a shared record and enable updates to that record, which can be made securely and with finality without the need for a central party to be maintaining and approving that record.
(02:02):
So when we think about assets being recorded on blockchain systems, what the technology can support is then also peer-to-peer transfer of ownership records and importantly, allow for greater programmability of events using smart contracts, which are software programs essentially, which are supported by certain blockchains and automatically carry out actions when predefined conditions are met. So this is really a transformative technology when we think about how assets are recorded and it opens up some additional possibilities about how they can move around the ecosystem.
Stephanie Lok (02:37):
Yeah. And I think some of the narrative around blockchain and digital assets being a transformative technology has really been talked about heavily for many years now, but of course, I think in just the last couple of years, we've really seen this growth and how much it's being used. Can you talk a little bit about what you've been seeing as the biggest shifts in this landscape?
Kara Kennedy (03:00):
Sure, and I completely agree with you. I think we've seen a real shift change in the discussion about how the technology could be used, particularly in respect of financial services over the last 12 to 18 months and there’s a few drivers for that.
(03:14):
I think there's a maturity around the conversation about how this technology can be deployed in regulated and controlled environments, about how it can be embedded within some of the traditional infrastructure and institutions that we have in our industry, and how it can be used to really deliver a shift change in how traditional markets operate, particularly thinking about things like how it can support a movement to 24/7 trading and settlement.
(03:42):
And we've seen a growth in terms of tokenized assets on-chain. So the stablecoin market garners a lot of attention. It's now in excess of $300 billion dollars, but also what we call real world assets on-chains. So thinking about things like treasuries or private credit, that is now growing as well.
(04:01):
And we've seen new entrants. We've seen the likes of NYSE and NASDAQ announcing their intention to support tokenized securities trading. And then we've seen big developments in the regulatory landscape, which helps to provide more clarity and support the introduction of regulated institutions into this space.
Stephanie Lok (04:22):
Yeah. The macro impact of everything that's been happening has definitely added a tidal wave that a lot of people can really build and grow in, but I guess now diving a little bit deeper into Kinexys and Kinexys Digital Assets, how do you view these shifts in the landscape really impacting our growth and our roadmap moving forward?
Kara Kennedy (04:45):
Yeah. So at Kinexys, we're really focused on delivering blockchain-based products and services to institutional clients and so we are focused around developing our range of on-chain cash solutions and also tokenization capabilities and we work across partners within the firm and with clients external to the firm to identify opportunities that could leverage this technology and really look to unlock new efficiencies and value for our clients.
(05:14):
In terms of our roadmap, I guess you know Kinexys has weathered the change that we've seen in the digital assets space over the last decade. Originally conceived as a blockchain center of excellence and really leading in terms of that education and advocacy role for the technology, we've moved through a number of iterations where we've developed and delivered proof of concepts. Whether that's in terms of demonstrating both the potential of the technology in certain use cases like around asset management, or looking at some of the unique concepts that need to be developed in terms of privacy and interoperability to really help lead the change here.
(05:50):
So that kind of disruptor and innovative DNA is very much part of Kinexys, but we're also really at a point now, given the changes that we've seen in the outside landscape where we can focus our roadmap around delivery of scalable institutional-grade solutions for our clients. So you know focusing on our capabilities, particularly in relation to digital cash, where we have 24/7 programmable, on-chain cash solutions.
(06:18):
And then looking at our tokenization capabilities, which already support a number of different applications related to collateral and financing. Within our private permissioned blockchain infrastructure, we're now stepping beyond that and looking at how we can deploy tokenization services towards the public blockchain infrastructure.
Stephanie Lok (06:37):
Yeah. So as you mentioned, Kinexys has really been in the space for many years, an expert in the blockchain digital payments and digital asset space for some time but in just the last year, I feel like we've had so many very exciting announcements.
(06:51):
So just last year, the team announced the launch of Kinexys Fund Flow, which is our new offering that enables the seamless distribution and servicing of alternative investments, including private equity funds. At a high level, can you talk a little bit about what this announcement represents in terms of how clients are actually using the blockchain today?
Kara Kennedy (07:12):
We partnered with J.P. Morgan Private Bank, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and Citco as fund administrator to develop a solution which enables the records that are typically held within those institutions to be maintained on our Kinexys Digital Asset blockchain ledger, enabling a golden source record that those all the counterparties can leverage. Then importantly, also leveraged our tokenization and digital cash capabilities to enable automation of processing of lifecycle events that take place within the fund.
(07:45):
So for example, capital call events or distribution events where value is moving between the investor and the fund or vice versa and leveraging blockchain technology and the Kinexys Digital Asset Platform has enabled those operational processes to be done in an automated fashion much quicker and with much greater transparency to the participants involved. Which can really deliver significant savings you know when deployed at scale in terms of the operational overheads that would typically be associated with providing those services.
(08:19):
And importantly for this part of the market, it also then opens up the potential that those products could be distributed to a much wider range of investors and they're typically constrained to qualified or investors targeted range, whereas this creates the potential that with greater automation, those could be opened up to a wider range of investors as well.
Stephanie Lok (08:40):
So what I'm hearing is that with all of this evolving landscape, a lot of these use cases that we launched last year really focused in providing that additional utility, that step change for our clients and the investors or users of these applications. But, also, as part of the evolving landscape, the topic of public chains always comes up.
(09:02):
It's something that Kinexys is able to step into a bit more and just last year, Kinexys Digital Assets powered the launch of J.P. Morgan Asset Management's tokenized money market fund on Ethereum. Can you expand about what that means for KDA's product offering for what we are trying to enable in the upcoming years?
Kara Kennedy (09:22):
Yes, absolutely and this is really where we're seeing now a real interest, particularly from the asset management community to look at how they can leverage the benefits of distribution on public blockchain platforms for their products and a key focus area is on tokenized money market funds where there is a potential opportunity to leverage these stable value products as on-chain collateral, as reserve assets potentially for stablecoins, or even ultimately as an alternative settlement asset on-chain.
(09:55):
And so this is an example of where I think the appetite has shifted, and there is now an interest in exploring the utility and the composability that can be accessed through the public blockchain ecosystems. We're still a very early stage in the adoption of these products but the first step here is really for Kinexys to work with our clients and other parts of J.P. Morgan who typically service these funds to develop robust and reliant capabilities for fund managers to deploy tokens on-chain, which represent those shares in those tokenized money market funds.
(10:33):
So I think from a Kinexys perspective, we see this very much as a starting point for the broader discussion about how on-chain tokenization of funds can really start to transform the asset management industry and open them up to additional opportunities.
Stephanie Lok (10:48):
Great. So I'm of course hearing you say a couple of key themes here. One that we're just really at the beginning of this ability to scale and grow all of our use cases for adoption and the second that I keep hearing is funds. You mentioned alternative investment funds, you're talking about money market funds. Why are the concept of tokenized funds a focus area for KDA now?
Kara Kennedy (11:12):
We recognize along with our clients that the funds landscape is an area where you're seeing significant change and continued innovation. That has been something you've seen over time well before blockchain, this is often where there is real drive to look at developing products that can meet investor demands and get closer to the exact investment outcomes that investors are looking for.
(11:35):
And there's definitely an area of exploration here where tokenized funds, particularly once we have a portfolio of tokenized securities that those funds can access, this opens up the potential longer term for much more bespoke products to be deployed by asset managers to their investor clients. Now, as I say, we are at the start of that journey, but certainly the interest in tokenization and being at the forefront of that as a vehicle for tapping new distribution channels or providing greater efficiencies and workflows and transparency is really key.
Stephanie Lok (12:09):
That's right. I think that really looking at the extra utility is really what's going to make the blockchain technology tokenization more relevant to our clients in the upcoming year or so. So we're going to shift gears a little bit here. We're going to talk a little bit more about leadership, building a team.
(12:30):
What guiding principles shape your approach of leadership in the space that is as fast-moving and scrutinized as digital assets and how does that really lead into you building the culture of your team and really focusing on that?
Kara Kennedy (12:43):
You know, I'm still relatively new in to the Kinexys team. I joined last year from our security services business, but I think one of the key principles that really stands out for me within the team is the commitment to high quality execution. So we move fast. We have to, given the pace of technological change in this space, but we still look to maintain the standards and expectations that would be the case anywhere else in J.P. Morgan.
(13:12):
That's really important for our clients who look to us as a trusted partner to navigate this space. And so I think that maintaining that high standard of execution is really critical. It is an area that is very broad and complex and I think one of the other key areas is around focusing on where we can really make the most impactful change for our business or for our clients or for the industry.
(13:37):
You know we all have a role to play in ensuring that we can lead sustainable change and product development in this space and so keeping an eye on the most important priorities when you know we're in a sea of potential distractions is also really critical. It's also really important to have some humility around what you know and what you don't.
(13:58):
The reality is, this is impacting across many different aspects of our industry and obviously goes beyond that into the Web3 and crypto space. And so it's about being very open to understanding others' perspectives and experiences, and bringing that knowledge and intelligence into the team and looking at how we can pair that with the expertise we have within the firm around traditional products and services and really look to try and marry those two. So maintaining that open mind to be educated at all times, I think is really critical as well.
Stephanie Lok (14:31):
Do you view the generational shift of the team as a crucial driver for our innovation and disruption within this space?
Kara Kennedy (14:42):
I think the very unique thing about this technology and some of the other new technologies that are impacting the industry today is that there is not a wealth of institutional knowledge that exists there. So we're all learning and growing at the same time. So I certainly do think that we are open to the younger talent and the team having a big role to play in terms of shaping our knowledge of the market, but also thinking about the strategy going forward.
(15:08):
I think that's, again, where thinking about having a team that is very open and adaptable with that growth mindset around how we approach problems, while still also being professional and responsive to the fact that we operate in a highly complex and regulatory environment. So it's kind of bringing those two things together, taking the wealth of talent and experience across the team and looking at how we can learn and take the contributions across the board to determine our direction of travel.
Stephanie Lok (15:38):
And how has your own career journey prepared you to lead in the space that has so much movement, so much disruption, there's the need for technical fluency and institutional credibility? What has that journey looked like for you? And do you have any advice for anyone who kind of wants to follow in this similar career path?
Kara Kennedy (15:56):
Sure. So I was very lucky when I began working in financial services that I joined in a product management role. I think product management's a great discipline. It really is a very varied function, and it gives you great exposure to both the technical and the commercial aspects of our business.
(16:15):
I travelled through a number of different teams working primarily in traditional settlement and traditional forms of securities. I also spent some time with market infrastructure and I think through all of those roles, learning the mechanics of how those businesses operate really helped me to have a baseline that looking at blockchain technology helped me to be able to piece together where some of the key transformation opportunities are for the technology.
(16:45):
You know, I will admit that even when I was asked to look at this, first of all, I was skeptical, but it was then really being able to dive into that and it quickly became apparent that this really could be something that would signal a very significant shift in our industry once adopted at scale. I couldn't be more excited to be at the forefront of working in this space with Kinexys because I genuinely do see this as the next shift change in how our industry operates you know similar to how we moved, first of all, from paper securities into electronic records. This is that sort of transformational shift into the next iteration of how our industry works.
Stephanie Lok (17:26):
Yeah, and it's exciting, right? You feel like you're constantly learning, you're assisting and helping to build into this new financial ecosystem and infrastructure. With that, maybe we wrap on a fun note. What's something about you that people would never guess?
Kara Kennedy (17:42):
Well, you know I had some pretty interesting jobs prior to coming into financial services. So I was keen to have my financial independence at an early age. So I had weekend jobs when I was at school, including a butterfly farm, and working as a local florist, and as a radio technician.
(18:00):
I did all sorts of things, but I think the one that's probably most memorable is that I met my husband while I was working as a cocktail bartender. And you know we still have those skills, so we put those to use sometimes as a treat at the weekend. I think I have fond memories of all those roles and the various different random skills that I learned throughout. I think that's, again, just a really good grounding for the types of opportunities and challenges that you face in any role, whichever industry. You're learning from all those experiences.
Stephanie Lok (18:31):
Yeah. Maybe one day we'll tokenize butterflies or cocktails, and that will come in extremely useful. But no, Kara, thank you so much for sharing your insights and experiences with us and to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Until next time.
Narrator (18:47):
Thank you for tuning in to Pay It Forward, a podcast by J.P. Morgan Payments for J.P. Morgan Payments. Stay up to date on the latest stories, technology, and people powering payments by subscribing on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform. Keep pushing boundaries, and we'll keep moving the payments world forward one transaction at a time.