Monument Bank Commits £250M to First UK Retail Deposit Tokenization
On March 25, 2026, UK-regulated Monument Bank announced it will tokenize an initial £250 million ($335 million) of its retail customer deposits, a first for a British financial institution on a public blockchain. The partnership with the Midnight Foundation, a privacy-focused network developed within the Cardano ecosystem, marks a significant step in integrating regulated banking with distributed ledger technology. The bank, which manages approximately £7 billion in deposits, is pioneering this move to enhance financial flexibility and create new digital services for its more than 100,000 customers.
To ensure consumer trust and regulatory compliance, the tokenized deposits will remain 100% backed by pounds sterling and fully redeemable on a one-to-one basis. Furthermore, the funds will retain protection under the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which covers deposits up to £85,000 per customer. This structure allows the bank to leverage blockchain's efficiency without compromising the security and safety standards of traditional banking.
Project Aims to Unlock Private Banking Tools for Retail Customers
The initiative is structured in three phases designed to progressively democratize access to sophisticated financial products. Following the initial deposit tokenization, Monument Bank plans to introduce tokenized real-world asset (RWA) investments managed by global asset firms. The final phase will roll out Lombard-style lending, allowing customers to borrow against their on-chain investments—a credit facility historically available only to high-net-worth private banking clients.
Midnight's technology is central to the project's feasibility. The network's use of zero-knowledge cryptography allows transaction details to remain confidential and accessible only to approved parties, addressing a key data privacy hurdle that has slowed blockchain adoption in banking. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson celebrated the deal as one of the ecosystem's largest, projecting it could drive billions in total value locked (TVL) by proving a viable model for on-chain regulated finance.
