Why Wall Street giants build tokenization money for institutions, not regular consumers
Major banks including JPMorgan and Citi have deployed blockchain-based systems to process large volumes of payments, but those tokenized deposit and payment services are largely confined to institutional clients and permissioned networks. U.K. challenger Monument Bank plans to tokenize up to £250 million of retail, interest-bearing deposits on the privacy-focused Midnight blockchain, aiming to give everyday customers access to tokenized investments without requiring direct crypto use.
Why It Matters
The contrast highlights a shift: Wall Street firms are modernizing back-office and cross-border rails with tokenization, yet retail customers have so far been excluded. Monument's project tests whether tokenized deposits can deliver bank-like protections, privacy and consumer utility at scale.
Key Facts
- JPMorgan Kinexys volume: More than $3 trillion moved through its Kinexys blockchain platform
- Citi Token Services: Processes billions in cross-border payments daily
- Monument Bank balance sheet: Roughly $2.4 billion
- Monument tokenization plan: Up to £250 million (~$335 million) of retail deposits to be tokenized on Midnight
- Deposit features: Interest-bearing, fully backed by Monument, redeemable one-for-one in pounds sterling; covered by Financial Services Compensation Scheme subject to limits
Large banks have begun moving large sums through blockchain infrastructures, but those tokenization efforts are mainly targeted at institutional clients and private networks rather than retail customers. JPMorgan's Kinexys platform has processed over $3 trillion, and Citi Token Services handles billions in cross-border payments every day. These deployments modernize treasury and payment operations but typically operate within permissioned environments and internal ledgers.
Industry participants say this institutional focus is deliberate. Banks often run multiple rails—tokenized deposits for some clients, regulated stablecoins for others and traditional correspondent banking for the rest—creating fragmentation and locked-up liquidity across networks. Tokenized deposits differ from stablecoins because they remain a claim on the issuing bank, can bear interest, and sit inside the regulated banking system, but connecting private bank ledgers to external networks raises privacy and data-exposure concerns.
Monument Bank and the Midnight blockchain are positioning themselves to bridge that gap by bringing tokenized deposits to retail customers while preserving regulatory protections and privacy. Monument plans to tokenize up to £250 million of interest-bearing retail deposits on Midnight, with those balances fully backed by the bank, redeemable one-for-one in sterling and eligible for Financial Services Compensation Scheme coverage within its limits. Midnight says it will use zero-knowledge proofs to allow verification of compliance and eligibility without putting customers' personal transaction data onchain.
The challenger bank frames the customer experience as indistinguishable from a conventional sterling deposit: retail clients would not need to know they are using blockchain or crypto to access tokenized savings, investments or lending. Monument envisions later offering fractional private equity, tokenized structured products and Lombard lending through the same regulated banking app, and potentially licensing the infrastructure to other banks via Monument Technology. The central test remains whether banks can make tokenized money function for consumers without eroding the privacy, compliance and trust that characterize traditional bank deposits.
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