Digital Asset estimates only 10% of $300 trillion in global liquid assets is used as collateral today, and tokenization could change that.
A consortium of global financial institutions executed the first cross-border intraday repurchase agreement using tokenized British government bonds on the Canton network, a blockchain designed exclusively for institutional operations. The operation represents the fourth transaction cycle completed by the working group driving this infrastructure.
The gilts market amounts to approximately $2 trillion. The incorporation of these instruments into the network represents the first time digital versions of these bonds have been used in a cross-border intraday repo. In addition, the round included the first cross-currency exchange, in which tokenized gilts were swapped against tokenized deposits denominated in a currency other than the pound sterling. Economic and risk terms, including interest rates and valuation haircuts, were embedded directly into Canton’s smart contracts, according to TreasurySpring, the firm that participated in designing the contractual logic.
Members of this round include LSEG, Euroclear, DTCC, Tradeweb, Citadel Securities, Societe Generale, Cumberland DRW, Archax, Virtu Financial, IntellectEU, and TreasurySpring. Digital Asset, the company behind the Canton Network, structured the technical and operational framework of the initiative.
Kelly Mathieson, Chief Business Development Officer at Digital Asset, explained that there are approximately $300 trillion in high-quality liquid assets distributed globally, yet only between 10% and 11% of that total is used as collateral at any given time. The reason, according to Mathieson, is structural: traditional markets require planning days in advance to move assets across borders, constrained by batch settlement cycles and highly restrictive time windows.
Canton enables real-time and continuous ownership transfer, without relying on those windows. This allows financial firms to operate with greater efficiency in the use of their balance sheets. Brian Steele, Managing Director at DTCC, emphasized that collaboration between institutions is critical to establish industry standards and accelerate the adoption of digital assets without sacrificing the levels of security and scalability that characterize traditional markets. The working group plans to continue with new on-chain financing initiatives throughout 2026.
