BNY, the world's largest custodian bank with $62.6 trillion in assets under custody, disclosed plans on July 22 to launch tokenized U.S. Treasury products on a private blockchain by year-end 2026 and enable 24/7 settlement for both conventional and tokenized Treasuries by 2027. The initiative tar...
"Payments, liquidity, collateral, digital assets, and securities markets are becoming more interconnected, creating demand for infrastructure that operates with greater speed, certainty, and resilience." — Robin Vince, CEO, BNY
BNY, the world's largest custodian bank with $62.6 trillion in assets under custody, disclosed plans on July 22 to launch tokenized U.S. Treasury products on a private blockchain by year-end 2026 and enable 24/7 settlement for both conventional and tokenized Treasuries by 2027. The initiative targets a structural mismatch in the $31.1 trillion Treasury market: stablecoin issuers hold an estimated $300 billion in short-dated government debt as reserve assets, yet the Fedwire Securities Service that settles those instruments operates only from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
BNY has already executed an after-hours Treasury trade using reserves from Ripple's RLUSD and OpenEden's USDO stablecoins, with Tradeweb handling execution after Fedwire shut down for the day. The pilot demonstrated that Treasury activity can continue beyond standard market hours using existing cash rails. Combined with BNY's January 2026 launch of tokenized deposit balances for institutional clients, the initiative positions the $59.4 trillion custodian as the primary infrastructure provider for an always-on Treasury market — one that could reshape how $15.9 billion in tokenized Treasuries and hundreds of billions in stablecoin reserves interact with the underlying government debt.
The U.S. Treasury market — $31.1 trillion outstanding as of June 2026 with $16.0 trillion in year-to-date issuance, up 10.7% year-over-year according to SIFMA — operates on settlement infrastructure designed for a five-day workweek. The Fedwire Securities Service processes secondary-market Treasury transfers between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET on business days only. The Federal Reserve Board is not currently considering expanding Fedwire Securities operating hours, though it has extended Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service to Sundays and weekday holidays.
This creates a structural problem. Stablecoins — now a $323 billion market as of May 2026 — trade continuously across global time zones. Their reserves sit primarily in short-dated Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements. Tether's Q1 2026 attestation reported $141 billion in U.S. Treasury and short-term exposure, including approximately $117 billion in direct T-bill holdings. Circle's USDC held $77.2 billion in reserves as of March 2026, concentrated in a BlackRock-managed government money market fund.
When a large stablecoin creation, redemption, or collateral call occurs outside Fedwire hours — evenings, weekends, or holidays — reserve adjustments cannot settle until the next business day. This delay introduces counterparty risk and capital inefficiency. For institutional participants managing multi-billion-dollar reserve portfolios, the gap between continuous crypto markets and weekday-only settlement represents a quantifiable cost.
BNY's initiative directly targets this mismatch. Rather than waiting for the Federal Reserve to extend Fedwire Securities hours, BNY is building parallel settlement capacity on a private blockchain that can operate outside traditional windows.
According to a client letter disclosed on July 22 and reported by Bloomberg, BNY completed an after-hours Treasury transaction earlier in 2026 using stablecoin reserves from two issuers: Ripple (RLUSD) and OpenEden (USDO). Ripple participated directly. BNY's cash-management unit Dreyfus acted on behalf of OpenEden. Tradeweb, the electronic trading platform, handled trade execution after Fedwire Securities had stopped processing secondary-market transfers for the day. The transaction settled through existing cash rails.
The pilot is significant for several reasons. BNY serves as the primary custodian for RLUSD's reserves and provides custody and investment management for OpenEden's tokenized Treasury fund. Both USDO and RLUSD hold short-dated government debt as reserve assets. By facilitating the trade using its own custody and cash-management infrastructure, BNY demonstrated that a single custodian can internalize settlement for after-hours Treasury activity when Fedwire is closed — provided both counterparties are already within its ecosystem.
The disclosed timeline calls for BNY to launch tokenized Treasury products and conduct pilot transactions on its private blockchain by year-end 2026. The longer-term target is 24/7 settlement for both conventional and tokenized Treasuries in 2027, with planned expansion to cover U.S., European, and Asian trading hours later in 2026.
The tokenized Treasury market reached $15.86 billion in distributed value as of July 22, 2026, a 2.23% increase over 30 days, according to RWA.xyz data. This sits within a broader tokenized real-world asset market of $34.67 billion, down slightly from a $35.2 billion peak on July 10. Tokenized U.S. Treasuries constitute the largest single category within RWAs.
The market has grown from $6.51 billion on July 20, 2025, to $15.92 billion — a near 2.5x increase in twelve months. Top issuers by distributed value as of the July 22 snapshot:
BlackRock's BUIDL holds approximately 40% of the tokenized Treasury market at over $2.9 billion in AUM. Securitize provides issuance and compliance technology for BUIDL. Franklin Templeton, Circle, and Ondo combine financial products with proprietary distribution channels.
BNY's entry as a settlement and custody infrastructure provider does not compete directly with these issuers. Instead, it sits beneath them — providing the plumbing through which tokenized Treasury products can settle outside traditional hours. This is consistent with BNY's historical role: it does not manufacture financial products, but provides the infrastructure on which others' products operate.
Stablecoin issuers have become among the largest institutional buyers of U.S. government short-term debt. According to a Standard Chartered analysis from February 2026, the U.S. Treasury may need to increase T-bill issuance as stablecoins approach a projected $2 trillion market cap. As of June 2025 data, U.S. Treasury bills and reverse repos each comprised roughly 42% of stablecoin reserve holdings, with bank deposits making up the remainder.
Tether alone holds approximately $117 billion in direct T-bill holdings plus $24 billion in reverse repurchase agreements collateralized by Treasuries — making it one of the largest holders of short-dated U.S. government debt globally. Circle's $77.2 billion in USDC reserves flows through a BlackRock-managed government money market fund with monthly Deloitte attestations.
The structural dependency is clear: stablecoins need Treasuries for reserve backing, and Treasury markets increasingly depend on stablecoin issuers as a demand source. BNY's 24/7 settlement initiative addresses the operational friction between these two interdependent markets. When a major stablecoin creation event occurs on a Saturday, the reserve manager currently cannot settle the corresponding Treasury purchase until Monday morning. BNY's infrastructure aims to eliminate that delay.
BNY is not alone in pursuing always-on settlement infrastructure for institutional assets.
JPMorgan Kinexys has processed more than $4 trillion in cumulative transactions since launch, with average daily volume exceeding $7 billion. The platform added Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi, and Singapore dollar to its tokenized deposit network in June 2026. Kinexys completed a cross-chain delivery-versus-payment test settling tokenized U.S. Treasuries against USD deposits. JPMorgan and DBS Bank of Singapore are exploring interoperability between Kinexys Digital Payments and DBS Token Services.
Tradeweb announced in July 2026 the completion of a tokenized U.S. Treasuries transaction on the Canton Network, where Franklin Templeton transferred a tokenized Treasury security to Virtu Financial in exchange for USDCx. Tradeweb also handled execution for BNY's after-hours pilot.
The competitive dynamics center on different models. JPMorgan operates a multi-currency deposit token network optimized for cross-border payment flows. BNY is building settlement infrastructure anchored to its custodial position — the $62.6 trillion in assets under custody gives it natural network effects among institutional counterparties. Tradeweb provides execution infrastructure that can serve either model.
Interoperability remains the primary barrier. Each institution operates on its own blockchain infrastructure, and cross-platform settlement requires bilateral agreements rather than open-protocol interoperability. The Federal Reserve's decision not to extend Fedwire Securities hours effectively cedes the after-hours settlement function to private infrastructure providers — a structural shift that gives custodial banks like BNY outsized influence over how the Treasury market evolves.
BNY's digital asset strategy, as articulated during its Q2 2026 earnings call on July 15, positions the bank as an institutional bridge rather than a crypto-native competitor. The bank reported record quarterly revenue of $5.7 billion, up 13% year-over-year. Its share price reached an all-time high of $157.66 following the earnings release. Assets under custody and administration climbed to $62.6 trillion.
The digital asset stack includes:
The revenue model focuses on repeatable infrastructure services — custody, administration, payments, liquidity, and collateral management — as assets increasingly tokenize. This contrasts with crypto-native platforms that monetize through trading fees or token issuance. BNY's approach mirrors its traditional business: charge basis points on assets under custody, regardless of whether those assets are conventional or tokenized.
CEO Robin Vince framed blockchain's institutional future as an extension of existing banking infrastructure rather than a departure from it. This positioning has implications for the broader tokenization market: if the dominant custodian builds proprietary settlement rails, the resulting infrastructure may look more like an upgrade to existing financial plumbing than a decentralized alternative.
BNY ($62.6T AUC) plans tokenized Treasury products by year-end 2026 and 24/7 settlement by 2027, directly addressing the mismatch between continuous stablecoin markets and weekday-only Fedwire Securities hours (8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. ET, Mon–Fri).
An after-hours Treasury pilot with Ripple (RLUSD) and OpenEden (USDO) already completed, using Tradeweb for execution and BNY's own cash rails for settlement after Fedwire closed.
Tokenized Treasuries reached $15.9 billion as of July 22, 2026, nearly 2.5x the $6.5 billion recorded twelve months earlier, with BlackRock BUIDL ($2.5B), Circle USYC ($3.0B), and Ondo USDY ($2.2B) leading issuance.
Stablecoin issuers hold an estimated $300 billion in short-dated Treasuries, making them among the largest institutional buyers of U.S. government debt — and the primary users of any 24/7 settlement infrastructure.
JPMorgan Kinexys ($4T cumulative, $7B daily average) and Tradeweb (Canton Network pilot) represent competing infrastructure, but interoperability across private blockchains remains unresolved.
The Federal Reserve's decision not to extend Fedwire Securities hours effectively delegates after-hours settlement to private custodians, concentrating infrastructure control among a small number of banks.
BNY's push for 24/7 Treasury settlement represents an infrastructure play, not a product play. The bank is not issuing tokenized Treasuries or competing with BlackRock, Ondo, or Franklin Templeton for asset management share. It is building the settlement rails on which those products — and the $300 billion in stablecoin reserves backing them — can operate outside the constraints of Fedwire's five-day, seven-hour window.
The economic logic is straightforward. BNY already custodies reserves for RLUSD and manages investments for OpenEden's Treasury fund. It launched tokenized deposits in January. It expanded its Circle partnership for USDC custody and minting. Each layer adds recurring revenue tied to asset flows rather than trading volume. If 24/7 settlement becomes the institutional standard, BNY's early infrastructure investment positions it to capture custody and settlement fees on a growing share of Treasury market activity.
The open question is whether private blockchain settlement can scale beyond bilateral arrangements within a single custodian's ecosystem. Cross-custodian interoperability — between BNY's private chain, JPMorgan's Kinexys, and emerging networks like Canton — remains technically and commercially unresolved. Until then, 24/7 Treasury settlement will function within walled gardens, benefiting the institutions large enough to internalize both sides of a trade.