Consortium Executes Fully On-Chain UST Transaction

Digital Asset, in collaboration with a consortium of financial institutions, has announced the successful completion of what it terms “a groundbreaking transaction” on the Canton Network, marking a first in enabling real-time, fully on-chain financing of US Treasuries (UST) against USDC.

The firm says the transaction, executed on Tradeweb, surpasses prior on-chain repo activities by providing near-instant, atomic settlement on a public blockchain, outside of traditional market hours, on weekends. More significantly, it adds, the live transaction was conducted entirely on-chain, with USDC serving as the cash leg and on-chain UST as collateral, providing true 24/7 liquidity and eliminating the limitations of off-ledger cash and market-hour restrictions seen in legacy implementations, Digital Asset says this is critical to creating a real, always-available, interoperable capital markets infrastructure.

Members of the working group focused on advancing on-chain initiatives include: Bank of America, Circle, Citadel, Cumberland DRW, Digital Asset, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Hidden Road, Societe Generale, Tradeweb, and Virtu Financial. 

In the transaction, prime brokers held client UST in custodied accounts at The Depository Trust Company (DTC), and enabled their clients to create on-chain UST on the Canton Network, unlocking their utility as freely transferable collateral. USDC was also minted and redeemed on the Canton Network specifically to demonstrate this use case while supporting near-instant liquidity and atomic settlement.

The trade actually occurred on a Saturday, demonstrating, Digital Asset says, the ability to access financing outside of traditional settlement windows.

“This milestone marks a foundational step towards building capital markets where high-quality liquid assets, such as UST, are available and usable at all times, regardless of traditional market hours or legacy settlement constraints,” the firm says in a statement. “By unlocking real-time financing and 24/7 collateral mobility, it enhances utility and drives the evolution of markets toward greater efficiency and accessibility. In addition, it will combine the strengths of traditional and crypto markets, pairing institutional trust and scale with the flexibility and programmability of DeFi. The Canton Network’s Global Collateral Network will provide the foundation for this unified market structure, enabling seamless movement of real-world assets across a new global digital financial system.”

Chris Zuehlke, partner at DRW and global co-head of Cumberland, says, “We’re done talking theory when it comes to blockchain for capital markets — over a weekend, real-time, on-chain financing of tokenized US treasuries against USDC has been executed. This lays the foundation for how blockchain is unlocking 24/7 funding.”