Banks Push Boundaries: US Treasuries Trade on Saturday via Canton Blockchain Test
Wall Street's sleeping in? Not anymore. Major banks just executed weekend US Treasury trades—on a blockchain—proving traditional finance is finally dipping its toes into crypto's 24/7 world.
The experiment: Canton Network's distributed ledger tech handled settlements without breaking a sweat. No more 'wait-for-Monday' delays—just instant, immutable proof of ownership.
Why it matters: When bond markets move beyond banker's hours, liquidity gets a turbocharge. But let's be real—it took them until 2025 to figure out what DeFi's been doing since 2020.
The kicker? Watch how fast 'innovation' happens when JPMorgan's quarterly bonuses are on the line.
What makes this special?
While tokenized Treasuries are already issued on public blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, XRP, Avalanche, and stellar by multiple asset managers and fintechs, most existing implementations either settle one leg off-chain or operate without large-scale participation from major banks and central securities depositories.
In this case, both cash and collateral were tokenized and settled atomically on the same ledger within a framework designed for permissioned institutional use, integrated directly with established trading venues.
Tradeweb’s platform handled execution, with the transaction designed to preserve participant confidentiality while demonstrating technical feasibility.
According to the announcement, additional transactions using the same structure are planned later this year as part of broader testing of the network’s interoperability and privacy features.
The Canton Network describes itself as a public, interoperable blockchain with permissioned access for regulated entities, aiming to LINK separate applications and asset types into a single environment for cross-asset settlement.
The repo trade forms part of its roadmap to connect traditional financial infrastructure with on-chain settlement rails for round-the-clock market operations.
