Financial Giants Test Interbank Blockchain Network

Major financial institutions completed a series of pilot tests on the Canton blockchain network, which connects various banks and financial institutions. The initiative explored the DLT system’s capabilities in optimizing interbank transactions.

Several TradFi majors participated in testing Canton, a decentralized infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that connects various banks and financial institutions into a single network.

The initiative simulated over 350 transactions involving tokenized assets, fund registries, digital currencies, a range of repo transactions, securities lending, and margin management. More than 15 asset managers, 13 banks, four custodians, three exchanges, and a stablecoin issuer participated in testing the system. Among them are:

Goldman Sachs;
BNY Mellon;
Cboe Global Markets;
Paxos Trust Co;
Standard Life Aberdeen plc (abrdn);
BNP Paribas;
Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC);
DRW;
IEX;
Nomura Holdings;
Northern Trust;
Standard Chartered Bank;
State Street;
Visa Inc;
Wellington Management Group.

The initiative explored the potential benefits and risks of using blockchain technology to optimize interbank processes. In particular, the DLT system effectively reduced counterparty and settlement risks and optimized capital.

The Canton blockchain network was launched in May 2023. It was created to network disparate institutional applications created by different organizations based on the Daml smart contract language developed by software provider Digital Asset.

According to Eric Saraniecki, Co-Founder of Digital Asset, the first test trials of Canton proved not only the ability of blockchain to simplify the interaction between different financial institutions but also demonstrated the growing interest of financial market participants in implementing DLT systems.

Canton launched a number of blockchain solutions for institutional use, including GS DAP, a platform for asset tokenization from Goldman Sachs.