Wells Fargo has joined a coalition of top US banks—including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup—to build a shared tokenized deposit network operated by The Clearing House. The initiative, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027, aims to move digital representations of customer deposits between participating banks on blockchain rails, enabling instant, round-the-clock settlement that breaks free from today’s business-hour constraints.
The network, which has yet to select a blockchain partner, would allow deposits to settle in real time at any hour, initially catering to large multinational corporations with complex cross-border payment and treasury needs. Wells Fargo, which manages $1.7 trillion in assets, previously piloted an internal digital cash tool in 2019, and in May 2025 held early discussions about a jointly issued stablecoin with the same banks. The project arrives as stablecoins surpassed $300 billion in market value and the CLARITY Act looms, potentially allowing stablecoin issuers to pay interest and compete with traditional deposits.
While client demand is not immediate—Bank of America’s Mark Monaco noted clients are not “beating down the door” for tokenized deposits—the network positions incumbents to meet future needs without losing customers to crypto-native rivals. JPMorgan contributes its Kinexys institutional payment platform and a deposit token launched on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base, while Wells Fargo’s recent trademark filing for WFUSD hints at a possible branded deposit token or stablecoin. The collaborative infrastructure is designed to extend blockchain benefits across the entire banking system rather than confining them to individual firms.
