Canada’s six largest banks are jointly exploring tokenized Canadian-dollar deposits marking a major step by the country’s banking sector toward on-chain payments.

• Bank of Montreal,

• CIBC,

• National Bank of Canada,

• Royal Bank of Canada,

• Scotiabank, and

• TD Bank Group

said that the first phase will test the movement of tokenized deposits between Canadian financial institutions.

The banks said the initiative could eventually connect with other digital-asset systems.

EXPERT OPINION | ‘Tokenized Deposits Are Probably Going to Take Over from Stablecoins ​5 Years from Now,’ Says Bank of England Policymaker

The project aims to enable faster, more efficient, and programmable payments while keeping funds within the regulated banking system. Tokenized deposits represent digital versions of deposits held at regulated banks rather than privately-issued stablecoins.

The initiative comes as Canadian financial institutions and regulators expand work on tokenized financial markets. The Bank of Canada said in March 2026 that Project Samara had demonstrated the issuance and trading of a tokenized bond using distributed-ledger technology with payments settled in wholesale central bank deposits.

The Bank of Canada also joined the BIS-led Project Agorá in May 2026 to examine how tokenized commercial-bank deposits and central bank money could improve wholesale cross-border payments.

The six banks said they expect the initiative to potentially include other deposit-taking institutions as the project develops.

INTRODUCING | The European Central Bank (ECB) Launches On-Chain Institutional Settlement System for Tokenised Assets

Stay tuned to BitKE on tokenization developments globally. 

Join our WhatsApp channel here.

Follow us on X for the latest posts and updates

Join and interact with our Telegram community

__________