Canadian Banks Launch Digital Money Project with Tokenized Deposits

Canada's big banks are working together to develop Canadian dollar-based digital money. The first step is to create tokenized deposits, which are traditional bank deposits recorded on a decentralized database or distributed ledger, such as a blockchain.

The project involves Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank, Royal Bank, Scotiabank, and TD Bank. They aim to deliver faster, more efficient, and programmable payments to Canadian customers while preserving safety, stability, and effective regulatory oversight.

Tokenized deposits would be issued by commercial banks and from a legal perspective, depositors can treat them the same as traditional bank deposits. The first phase of the project seeks to move tokenized deposits between Canadian financial institutions.