Bank of New York Mellon is giving its deposits a blockchain makeover.
Summary
- The new service turns traditional bank deposits into on-chain tokens that represent cash clients already hold at BNY.
- In plain English: it’s regular bank money, just dressed for the blockchain age.
- The custody giant says the move is part of its push toward 24/7 operability, a goal increasingly shared by global markets that never really sleep anymore.
According to Bloomberg, the firm is launching a tokenized deposit service that lets big institutional clients move money on digital rails.
Clients and interested parties include heavyweights like Intercontinental Exchange, Citadel Securities, DRW, Ripple’s prime brokerage arm Ripple Prime, asset manager Baillie Gifford, and stablecoin issuer Circle—an eclectic guest list that signals how mainstream blockchain plumbing has become.
Tokenized deposits could also play a key role in the broader push to tokenize securities such as stocks and bonds, acting as the settlement leg that actually makes those trades work in real time. BNY’s chief product and innovation officer, Carolyn Weinberg, said the goal is to bridge trusted banking infrastructure with emerging digital rails—without asking institutions to take a leap of faith.
BNY now joins JPMorgan, which rolled out JPM Coin, and HSBC, which plans to expand its own tokenized deposit offering this year. Coming on the heels of the newly passed Genius Act, the move underscores a simple reality: banks aren’t trying to replace money—they’re just upgrading how it moves.
