HSBC Pilots Its Tokenised Deposit Service on Canton, Its First Use on a Public Blockchain
The simulated pilot covered issuance, transfer and atomic settlement of HSBC tokenised deposits against other digital assets; the bank named no counterparties or assets.
HSBC said on 13 April 2026 that its Global Payments Solutions business had completed a pilot of its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) on the Canton Network. The bank said it was the first time TDS had been issued and used on a public blockchain.
What the pilot did
According to HSBC's release, as reproduced by Treasury Today:
- A simulation. The controlled pilot simulated the issuance, transfer and atomic settlement of tokenised deposits, using Canton-enabled applications and digital assets.
- Settlement against assets. It simulated tokenised deposit transfers settling atomically against other digital assets.
- Wider connections. It explored linking to further settlement rails, to extend delivery versus payment across cash and asset legs.
HSBC called Canton "a public network for regulated institutions with configurable privacy". Neither the release nor coverage by Ledger Insights named any counterparty, application or asset involved.
What TDS is
HSBC describes TDS as a service that lets corporate clients convert fiat deposits into digital tokens one to one and transfer them instantly on HSBC's ledger, around the clock. It supports US dollars, sterling, euros, Hong Kong dollars and Singapore dollars. On the same day, HSBC announced in a separate release that TDS is live in the United States; that release does not mention Canton.
Ledger Insights reported that HSBC launched TDS in May 2025 on HSBC Orion, its private blockchain, which uses Canton technology. It noted that the pilot was simulated and pointed to the capital treatment of exposures on permissionless chains as one possible reason banks move carefully.
The release quotes Manish Kohli, Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC, and Yuval Rooz, chief executive of Digital Asset and a co-founder of the Canton Network.
Why it matters
Tokenised deposits are commercial bank money on a ledger, the bank-issued alternative to stablecoins. HSBC moving its service from its own private network onto public Canton infrastructure, even in a simulation, is a step toward deposits that can settle directly against tokenized securities held by other institutions. HSBC is already a member of the Canton Foundation. The open questions are when a live transaction follows and with whom.
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