Since the inception of the Canton Network, 155 participants from 45 large organizations have liquidated real-world assets across 22 blockchains.
Major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, and Cboe Global Markets, have completed a large-scale pilot using blockchain technology.
According to a March 12 Bloomberg report, institutional investors executed more than 350 simulated transactions through distributed ledger technology in areas such as tokenized assets, fund registration, digital cash, repo, securities lending, and margin management on the Canton network, which was launched in May 2023 by startup Digital Asset Holdings. The pilot included 15 asset managers, 13 banks, four custodians, three stock exchanges, and stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust.
In its announcement on the same day, the Canton Network said that 155 participants from 45 major organizations have since demonstrated settlement on 22 permissioned blockchains connected to their ledger. The company stated:
“Over a four-day period, participants were invited to test 22 decentralized applications (dApps) comprising five fund registries, five cash registries, three bond registries, three trading applications, four margin applications, and two financing applications, to exchange tokenized securities, money market funds, and deposits between applications.”
The Canton Network is a privacy-enabled, interoperable blockchain network designed for institutional investors. In part, blockchain allows financial institutions to move regulated assets, data, and cash around each other in real-time.
“With the Canton Network, a digital voucher and a digital payment can be composed through two separate applications into a single atomic transaction, ensuring a simultaneous exchange without operational risk,” according to a press release from Canton. Furthermore, he added, “Similarly, a digital asset could be used in a collateralized financial transaction through connection to a repo application or leveraged lending.”
Current participants in the Canton Network include Deloitte, Deutsche Börse, Microsoft, Moody’s and S&P Global.
Over the past year, tokenization has garnered significant interest from both institutional investors and celebrities. On Feb. 7, the Hong Kong subsidiary of Swiss multinational bank UBS tokenized a stock option of Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi on Ethereum alongside local cryptocurrency exchange OSL. A few weeks later, legendary Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi announced the launch of a tokenized product in partnership with Join The Planet, an environmental nonprofit behind the PLANET token.