Citi and DBS have completed their first weekend tokenized cross-border payment between Singapore and the United States, using tokenized deposits on Swift Digital Ledger to get around the limits of traditional banking hours. DBS said the transfer was settled in minutes, compared with the industry norm of as long as two business days for conventional cross-border transactions. The deal adds to a growing list of bank experiments with blockchain-based settlement rails designed to improve payment speed while keeping deposits within the banking system. Swift said in July that its blockchain-based ledger was ready for initial use and that it was preparing tokenized cross-border payment pilots with 17 major banks, including Citi, DBS, HSBC, BNP Paribas, UBS, ANZ and Standard Chartered. Citi is also part of a separate effort by major US banks to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027 through The Clearing House. Earlier, in November 2025, DBS and JPMorgan said they planned to build a blockchain tokenization framework for onchain transfers between their deposit token ecosystems.

Swift is testing whether blockchain infrastructure can plug into its existing cross-border messaging network, which handles about $1.5 quadrillion in annual traffic, according to a CoinDesk report published on Aug. 29. The pilot uses a shared ledger built on Linea, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by ConsenSys, to explore round-the-clock tokenized payments that could operate outside standard banking hours. The initial trial includes 17 major banks across six continents, including ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, DBS, HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, Mitsubishi UFJ and Wells Fargo. Under the current setup, final settlement still runs through existing payment rails, while the blockchain ledger is being used first for messaging and coordination. The test lines up with a wider push in traditional finance toward tokenized cross-border payments, including JPMorgan’s Kinexys. For Swift, the main challenge is not simply whether the technology works, but whether it can run with the scale, reliability and regulatory standards required by a network that sits at the center of global banking flows.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have completed the first live cross-border bank-to-bank tokenized-deposit transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, moving the system from initial readiness to its first interbank use. The banks exchanged payment messages through the shared ledger and recorded the resulting obligations on HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service and Standard Chartered’s tokenized-deposit infrastructure. Swift then matched and netted those obligations, while final settlement was completed through existing systems. The setup is designed to let separate bank-issued tokenized-deposit platforms work together rather than forcing participants onto a single infrastructure. Swift and the two banks said the model could help corporate and institutional clients move liquidity across institutions outside conventional operating hours. The announcement did not disclose the size of the payment, the currencies involved, or the geographic corridor, and it did not say whether the transfer was routine production activity or a controlled live transaction. The deal follows Swift’s July update that its ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to pilot live transactions.

Fidelity digital asset executive Emma Pecenicic said tokenization is aimed at building fully digital-native funds with real-time settlement and 24/7 trading, while Asian sandbox programs are being used to test cross-border use cases.

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