The Clearing House will run the network for 11+ banks, targeting H1 2027. Stablecoin rivalries and the CLARITY Act fight over reward provisions loom as the project takes shape.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are developing a shared network to clear and settle tokenized deposits around the clock. The Clearing House, a payments company owned by major commercial banks, will operate the system. The goal is to let regulated institutions move tokenized money between each other on blockchain rails while connecting to existing payment infrastructure.
Tokenized deposits represent a claim on funds at a commercial bank. Unlike stablecoins, the underlying cash stays inside the regulated banking system and receives the same legal treatment as a conventional deposit. The network will initially serve multinational corporations, with use cases that include programmable treasury operations, real-time liquidity management, automated payments and cross-border transfers.
“This is a big move for the banks,” The Clearing House CEO David Watson said in discussing the project.
More than a dozen other institutions have signed on as participants: BNY, HSBC, PNC, Santander, TD Bank, Truist and U.S. Bank among them. A blockchain provider has not yet been selected, according to earlier reporting.
JPMorgan and Citigroup already operate separate blockchain payment services. JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform processes more than $7 billion in average daily volume and has handled over $40 trillion since its launch. Citi Token Services operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong and has transferred billions of dollars through Citigroup’s network. A shared system would remove the closed-network limits that keep these flows inside single banks.
JPMorgan Payments co-head Max Neukirchen said a regulated market-infrastructure solution for clearing and settling tokenized deposits was needed to scale institutional on-chain payments.
Stablecoins already provide 24-hour transfers, programmable settlement and access across blockchain networks. About $263 billion in stablecoins are in circulation, giving crypto-native payment providers an established market that banks must now address. Deposit tokens would offer similar settlement functions while keeping customers’ money on bank balance sheets. But the banks face the challenge of agreeing on common technical and operating standards while competing for many of the same corporate clients.
The network is taking shape as US banking groups pressure the Senate to tighten stablecoin provisions in the CLARITY Act. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and 76 state banking associations have asked lawmakers to prevent crypto platforms from offering incentives that function like interest on deposits.
Current language would prohibit interest-like returns on stablecoins held passively but permit rewards tied to payments and other qualifying activity. Banking groups argue that crypto companies could use those incentives to draw money away from banks, reducing the deposits available for consumer and business lending.
Goldman Sachs has split from the wider banking lobby over that disagreement. CEO David Solomon supports advancing the CLARITY Act despite calling it imperfect, arguing that establishing a federal market structure would give greater certainty for digital asset development. His position contrasts with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other banking executives who have warned that the reward provisions could put regulated banks at a competitive disadvantage.
The Clearing House plans to make the system available to US financial institutions beyond its initial participants, potentially letting smaller banks access shared blockchain payment infrastructure.
Development will now depend on selecting the underlying technology, agreeing on operating standards and connecting the network with existing bank systems. The target remains the first half of 2027, although the participating institutions have not announced a specific launch date. Multinational companies will provide the first test of whether regulated deposit tokens can match the speed and programmability of stablecoins without moving funds outside the banking sector.
JPMorgan (Alpha Score 65, Moderate), Bank of America (68, Moderate) and Wells Fargo (60, Moderate) carry neutral-to-slightly-positive momentum on the AlphaScala risk scale, reflecting their stable financial profiles. The network’s success will test whether the same institutions can collaborate on shared infrastructure while competing for the same corporate clients.
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