What is a tokenised deposit?
How tokenised deposits work, why banks are looking at them, and how they differ from stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.
A tokenised deposit is a commercial bank deposit represented as a digital token on a distributed ledger. The money is still a deposit at the bank, and it is still the bank's liability. What changes is how it moves: as a token that can be transferred, programmed and settled on a ledger, rather than only as a balance in the bank's core system.
The short answer
- It is bank money: a claim on a regulated bank, like the balance in a current account.
- It is issued by the bank that holds the deposit, not by a third party.
- It is backed one-for-one by a balance the bank keeps on its own core ledger.
- It can move on a ledger between the bank's customers, and later between banks on shared networks.
Why are banks looking at tokenised deposits?
Corporate and institutional clients increasingly want money that can move at any hour, settle quickly and carry conditions with it. Tokens on a shared ledger can do that. Tokenised deposits give a bank a way to offer those properties while the money stays inside the regulated banking system, on the bank's balance sheet, under the bank's existing controls.
The first tokenised deposit systems in production at major banks were single-issuer: tokens moving between one bank's own clients. That pattern lets a bank prove the model end to end before connecting to other banks.
How is a tokenised deposit different from a stablecoin?
A stablecoin is usually issued by a non-bank company and backed by a reserve of assets that the issuer holds. Holders have a claim on that issuer and its reserve, not on a bank deposit.
A tokenised deposit is issued by the bank that holds the money. The holder's claim is on the bank, in the same way as an ordinary deposit, and the deposit stays on the bank's books.
How is it different from a CBDC?
A central bank digital currency is a liability of the central bank. A tokenised deposit is a liability of a commercial bank. They can complement each other, but they are different kinds of money issued by different institutions.
What keeps a tokenised deposit sound?
The design questions that matter most are about control and reconciliation, not the token itself:
- The core ledger stays authoritative. The deposit liability stays on the bank's core system. When tokens are created, money moves in the core first, into a dedicated account where it is earmarked. When tokens are redeemed, they are destroyed on the ledger before the money is released in the core. Money and tokens are never both spendable at the same time.
- Every token is backed. The balance earmarked in the core always equals the tokens outstanding on the ledger, and this is reconciled continuously rather than at month-end. If the two ever disagree, issuing new tokens stops until the difference is explained.
- The bank controls the keys. Signing keys stay in the bank's own hardware security module (HSM), which applies the bank's signing policy and can refuse.
- The bank is the network member. The bank joins the ledger network in its own name.
- No personal data on the ledger. The ledger carries opaque references, not names or account numbers.
- Mistakes are corrected, not erased. An error is undone with a new, opposite transaction linked to the original, so every ledger keeps a complete history.
Where does Naimint fit?
Naimint is software for licensed banks: the orchestration layer between a bank's core banking system and tokenised deposit networks. It handles the minting and burning, the connection to the core, compliance checks, signing through the bank's HSM, reconciliation and network adapters, all deployed in the bank's own cloud. Naimint is a software vendor, not a bank, custodian or network participant.
Phase 1 runs intra-bank on a private Canton domain and is available for pilots. Phase 2 adds interbank networks through adapters. Tokens move between networks by burning on one and reissuing on another, never by bridging.