Major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, and Cboe Global Markets, have successfully completed a large-scale pilot test utilizing blockchain technology, as reported by Bloomberg on March 12.
The pilot test, conducted on the Canton network launched by startup Digital Asset Holdings in May 2023, involved over 350 simulated transactions executed by institutional investors. These transactions spanned various areas, including tokenized assets, fund registries, digital cash, repo, securities lending, and margin management. Participants in the pilot test included 15 asset managers, 13 banks, four custodians, three exchanges, and the stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust.
According to the Canton Network announcement on the same day, a total of 155 participants from 45 major organizations demonstrated settlement across 22 permissioned blockchains connected to its ledger. The participants were invited to try out 22 decentralized applications (dApps) over four days, covering fund registries, cash registries, bond registries, trading, margin, and financing apps, facilitating the exchange of tokenized securities, money market funds, and deposits across applications.
The Canton Network is designed as a privacy-enabled interoperable blockchain network catering to institutional investors, enabling real-time movement of regulated assets, data, and cash between financial institutions. The network facilitates the simultaneous and risk-free exchange of digital bonds and payments across different applications, ensuring operational efficiency.
Current participants of the Canton Network include notable entities such as Deloitte, Deutsche Börse, Microsoft, Moody’s, and S&P Global. The success of this large-scale pilot test underscores the growing interest in tokenization among institutional investors and celebrities. For instance, UBS’s Hong Kong subsidiary tokenized an options call warrant of Xiaomi’s stock on Ethereum in partnership with a local crypto exchange, and soccer legend Lionel Messi announced a tokenized product in collaboration with Join The Planet, an environmental nonprofit organization.