Canada's Big Six Banks Launch Tokenized Deposit Pilot

Canada's six largest banks will launch a joint pilot to move tokenized Canadian-dollar deposits. The first phase tests transfers between institutions before linking to broader digital asset ecosystems.

TD Bank announced the initiative on Tuesday, noting the goal is faster, around-the-clock payments. Customer funds will remain within the regulated banking system rather than moving to external stablecoins.

Initial Scope and Participating Institutions

Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabard, and TD Bank form the group. They will test moving digital representations of existing bank deposits between their systems.

The banks stated that additional lenders may join the project later. This shared model allows them to test 24/7 programmable payments while preserving regulatory oversight.

Integration with Existing Canadian Projects

This move follows Project Samara, where the Bank of Canada, RBC, and TD settled a 100 million dollar bond. That test used tokenized wholesale Canadian dollars on a distributed ledger.

Shopify and National Bank are also developing a regulated digital Canadian dollar. The Big Six initiative adds a payment use case to Canada's growing tokenized financial markets.

Global Context and Market Positioning

CoinDesk notes that banks worldwide are racing to put deposits on blockchain infrastructure. In the U.S., regional lenders are building similar shared tokenized-deposit networks.

Swift recently began testing tokenized deposits for cross-border payments across six continents. Canada's project keeps domestic currency activity within its own regulated banking framework.