Banks Flock to Tokenized Deposit Networks Amid Regulatory Clarity

Tokenized deposit networks have gained significant interest in the banking sector, particularly among money-center banks. The rise of payment stablecoins and the bipartisan passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025 led financial institutions to seek digital dollars they could use for lending in the fractional reserve banking system.

In April 2026, the FDIC proposed a rule confirming that deposit insurance does not depend on the technology or recordkeeping used to record a bank's deposit liabilities. This regulatory clarity has supercharged tokenized deposits as a hot item for bank technology roadmaps.

There are three different models of tokenized deposits: intrabank settlement networks, intrabank tokenized deposits, and interbank tokenized deposits. Money-center banks have already implemented these systems, with JPMorgan's Kinexys platform processing over $7 billion a day in wholesale tokenized deposit transfers.

Regional and community institutions, however, need interbank tokenized deposits to participate in the system. Several networks are competing to build out tokenized deposit networks, including Cari Network, Project Keystone, The Clearing House On-Chain Money Initiative, The Hazel Network, DTX by IBAT, and BankChain Alliance.