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Innovation is a funny thing. It often arrives with an excess of hype and then fades into disappointmentbefore reemerging in full bloom. A case in point is JPMorgan Chases JPM Coin, a corporate stablecoin launched shortly after the 2017 crypto bubble that seemed doomed to languish as a proof of concept that would never catch on in the real world.

In recent weeks however, the story around JPM Coin has changed dramatically as the bank announced that it is notching daily transaction volumes above $1 billion and that its big corporate clients are finally tapping into the coins promise to provide programmable money.

If youre unfamiliar with JPM Coin, its a digital dollar that the bank created on a private version of the Ethereum blockchain. This means that clients with access to the coin (or ones like it) can enjoy the benefits of crypto technologyincluding 24/7 transactions and smart contractswithin a secure corporate environment. Well, thats how its supposed to work in theory.

In reality, the past six years have been marked by a series of announcements involving banks and companies saying theyve carried out a blockchain transactioninvolving dollars or equities or commoditiesand thats been the end of the matter. While the transactions did occur, they didnt really matter since they were mostly one-off events that didnt lead to any changes in day-to-day commerce.

This has quietly begun to change, however, as companies have moved past the PR phase of blockchain and started tapping into its actual benefits. I spoke with Naveen Mallela, the head of coin systems (yes, thats a title) at JPMorgan Chasess Onyx unit, and he explained that the likes of Siemens, Cargill, and FedEx are all using these tools in daily operations.

Mallela told me that customers are viewing JPM Coin less as a stablecoin than as a tool to manage commercial deposits and take advantage of programmable money. I pushed him on that, asking what exactly he means by programmable. He explained that it means creating automated instructions for funds you control. A primitive illustration is autopay for bills but, thanks to blockchain, companies can now carry out far more sophisticated operations.

Mallela gave three persuasive examples of programmable money in action: companies using blockchain to carry out cash sweeps that used to happen once a day, but that can now occur anytime; finance firms using smart contracts to monitor and address margin calls for securities; and companies arranging for shipping payments to be released at various stages of a voyage.

By relying on smart contracts to handle these operations, companies can deploy cash and staffing resources more efficiently. And this is likely only the beginning. Mallela notes that IFTTT (if this, then that) instructions are becoming commonplace in the corporate blockchain environment and that companies will find more and more ways to use them.

Meanwhile, programmable money is sprouting up in the investment sector as wellJPMorgan Chase and Apollo just launched tokenized funds in Singapore, while a startup called Superstate, founded by the creator of the popular DeFi protocol Compound, just raised $14 million to do the same in the U.S. All of this shows that while blockchain-based finance is still far from mainstream, it has quietly taken a giant leap forward.

Jeff John Robertsjeff.roberts@fortune.com@jeffjohnroberts

Binance is launching a new crypto exchange in Thailand alongside Gulf Energy, a giant conglomerate run by the countrys second-richest man. (Bloomberg)

Paxos is launching a new USD-pegged stablecoin in Singapore after becoming the second company to obtain a key approval from the countrys Monetary Authority. (The Block)

The SEC deferred on two more crypto ETF applications, including Grayscales bid to launch one for ETH futures, though many predict approvals in January. (Bloomberg)

Arks Cathie Wood plugged Solana on TV, helping to push the altcoins price to three times what it was in January. (CNBC)

Bitcoin soared 6%, wiping out losses from earlier this week and returning the currency to just under $38,000. (Coindesk)

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JPMorgan Chase, Siemens, and FedEx show that blockchain finance is more than a buzzword - Fortune