Uber completed a pilot of round-the-clock cash management using tokenized assets on the Canton Network, the companies said in a Friday press release shared with CoinDesk. The partners were HSBC, Franklin Templeton, Tradeweb and Fireblocks.
What Happened
Uber used HSBC's tokenized bank deposits, which represent commercial bank money, to buy shares of Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund through Tradeweb, with Fireblocks providing wallet infrastructure. Uber could also redeem part of its holdings, including over a weekend. The transactions settled together on Canton using delivery-versus-payment, meaning the fund tokens and the payment moved together, which reduces the risk of one side completing without the other.
The Problem It Targets
Cash sitting in bank accounts earns less than cash invested in short-term funds, but getting it back can take time. Companies that must make payments at night or on weekends often keep extra cash on hand rather than invest it. Settling the investment and the payment on the same network could let a treasurer keep more cash invested and tap it when needed. Uber's vice president of corporate finance, treasury and capital markets, Odette Rodrigues, said the approach reduces the need to maintain liquidity buffers and called the pilot a first step toward a 24/7 model for managing working capital.
What We Don't Know
CoinDesk's report doesn't disclose how much money moved, how long the pilot ran, which share class of Franklin Templeton's fund was used, or what it cost. It remains a pilot with no announced timeline for production use, and the report doesn't say whether the weekend redemption was backed by instant liquidity from the fund or from HSBC.
Why It Matters
The pilot combines two instruments we have covered separately: tokenized deposits, which Wells Fargo plans to offer corporate clients (details), and tokenized money market funds, such as Franklin Templeton's BENJI (profile) and J.P. Morgan's new Solana funds (details). The treasury use case is the one where the value proposition is easiest to state: yield without giving up access. It also runs on Canton, the network that DTCC's tokenization service uses alongside a private Besu chain (DTCC launch).
- CoinDesk, Oct 31 — the pilot, partners, mechanics, Uber comments
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