Uber ran a blockchain-based treasury pilot with HSBC and Franklin Templeton that generated 1.5 additional days of yield by keeping corporate cash invested through part of a weekend, according to a Bloomberg report published on October 30, 2026. The Canton Network tokenized deposits transaction was a real purchase and sale, not a paper experiment. Uber bought a Franklin Templeton tokenized money market fund on a Thursday and sold it on Sunday, extending the period during which its cash remained productive. Neither the amount invested nor the value of the additional earnings was disclosed.
The result matters because it addresses a practical limitation in conventional corporate treasury operations. Many companies liquidate money market holdings before traditional markets close on Friday so that cash is available for the weekend. Tokenized settlement can remove that need to unwind early, provided the underlying assets, cash instruments and market infrastructure operate continuously. In this case, HSBC supplied tokenized bank deposits, Franklin Templeton provided the investment product, Canton facilitated liquidity and settlement, and Tradeweb and Fireblocks participated alongside them.
Canton Network tokenized deposits keep cash productive for longer
The reported gain was additional days of earnings, not a 1.5 percent return and not a higher annual interest rate. Uber earned the equivalent of 1.5 extra days of yield because its money stayed invested from Thursday through Sunday rather than being converted back into conventional cash by the Friday market close. The distinction is important for evaluating treasury technology: the pilot improved the timing of access to yield rather than promising a different yield product or a dramatic increase in the underlying rate.
Tokenized deposits are claims against the commercial bank that issues them. That structure separates them from stablecoins, which generally depend on separate reserve portfolios maintained by their issuers. For corporate users, the distinction can matter because deposits remain bank liabilities while tokenization changes how they are issued, transferred and settled. The bank relationship and legal claim remain central even when the underlying cash is represented digitally.
HSBC’s Manish Kohli described the pilot as evidence of technical readiness. He also said the bank plans to extend access to US corporate customers and offer investment choices beyond Franklin Templeton products. That suggests the transaction was designed as a test of a broader treasury model, combining bank-issued cash with tokenized funds and network-based settlement rather than serving as a one-time transaction.
What the Uber transaction demonstrated
The clearest demonstration was operational. Uber bought the fund on Thursday and sold it on Sunday, while the conventional route would have required liquidating before Friday’s close. The extra 1.5 days of earnings came from that longer holding period. No one disclosed how much cash Uber committed or how much the additional earnings were worth, so the pilot cannot be converted into a precise return calculation from public information.
It also showed that several specialized pieces of infrastructure can work together. HSBC contributed tokenized deposits. Franklin Templeton supplied its Benji tokenized money market platform. Tradeweb likely supported the transaction workflow, while Fireblocks contributed its institutional digital asset infrastructure. Canton provided the network environment for liquidity and settlement. The result was not a new investment strategy on Uber’s part, but a new way to manage the timing of an existing treasury process.
For treasury teams, weekends and holidays create recurring inefficiencies. Funds may remain available, but converting them back to cash before traditional markets close can shorten the period in which they earn a return. If tokenized cash and tokenized assets can move without relying on those closing times, a company can keep more of its treasury working continuously. The gain may appear modest for one pilot, but the same operating logic could apply to payments, collateral management and other cash-management workflows when volumes increase.
HSBC’s tokenized infrastructure is already wider than one pilot
The Uber transaction sits within a broader HSBC rollout. Its Tokenised Deposit Service was described as live in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The service opened for eligible US corporate and institutional customers in April 2026, enabling domestic and cross-border transfers at any time subject to availability and regulatory requirements. Supported currencies included the US dollar, euro, British pound, Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar, offshore Chinese yuan and UAE dirham.
HSBC and Standard Chartered also completed a separate interbank transaction on August 19 by connecting independently operated tokenized deposit systems through Swift’s blockchain ledger. Swift coordinated payment messages and matched and netted obligations before the banks recorded results in their own systems, with final conventional-money settlement occurring through existing payment systems. Seventeen banks across six continents joined the initial rollout, including BNY, Citi, DBS, HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS and Wells Fargo.
That interbank work is relevant because treasury adoption depends on connections beyond a single client and asset manager. A corporate wants to issue and transfer tokenized cash, acquire a fund, use it for a transaction and return the cash efficiently. The more institutions and currencies are connected, the less likely that one blockchain-based workflow becomes an isolated experiment. The Uber pilot used a smaller group of partners, but it tested a path that could fit within this wider infrastructure.
Franklin Templeton and Uber were not starting from zero
Franklin Templeton’s relationship with Canton predates the Uber transaction. The asset manager integrated its Benji platform with the network in November 2025 to support institutional access to tokenized investment products. Roger Bayston, Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets, said the company wanted to meet institutions where they operated and where they were headed, presenting the integration as a way to combine interoperability with the privacy requirements of institutional clients.
Uber also had prior interest in blockchain-based money. In June 2025, chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the company was studying stablecoins for payments and potential savings on cross-border transactions. He described them as promising for globally moving money at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in San Francisco, while making clear that Uber remained in the study phase. The treasury pilot therefore extended an area Uber had already identified as strategically relevant, although the earlier comments concerned payments and cross-border costs rather than weekend investment yield.
The next step is not just technical replication. Corporate users will need predictable liquidity, clear operational controls, reliable redemption and integration with existing systems. Fireblocks chief executive Gal Shaulov expects hundreds of corporations to adopt blockchain-based investment models within 18 months, but that is a forecast about future adoption rather than a measured result from Uber’s pilot. The pilot proves that the transaction structure can work. Broad adoption will depend on economics, regulation, counterparty confidence and the availability of suitable products.
Why privacy and interoperability will shape the next stage
Canton’s institutional proposition rests on controlled visibility. Participants can exchange and verify relevant transaction data without making every position and strategy publicly visible, an important distinction from fully transparent public networks. That feature is especially relevant to treasury managers, whose counterparties, balances and timing can reveal valuable information about corporate operations.
The Uber transaction also demonstrates how separate institutional services can meet on shared infrastructure. The bank issued the deposit, the asset manager managed the fund, and the network connected cash and investment liquidity. Fireblocks is developing CAPS, a private institutional pricing standard with Zenith and Memora as initial design partners. The standard remains in development, so it should not be presented as part of Uber’s completed pilot. Its proposed goal of separating public reference prices from private bilateral valuations nevertheless points in the same direction as Canton: make tokenized finance useful without forcing institutions into a one-size-fits-all disclosure model.
DTCC’s October 28 launch of a tokenization service with Canton as an initial integration adds another layer of potential utility. The service allows eligible users to create tokenized representations of securities held at DTC and convert between traditional and tokenized forms. Its custody business is large, but that figure should not be confused with assets already tokenized through the service. Still, a connection between DTC records and private institutional settlement could help expand the practical universe of assets available for onchain treasury activity. Whether treasurers treat a weekend as a settlement window or as a lost return is the question that matters, and a Canton Network tokenized deposits pilot is only the first evidence that the answer is changing.
The immediate takeaway is modest but concrete. Corporate cash did not need to sit outside the market from Friday to Sunday, and Uber received the equivalent of 1.5 additional days of earnings as a result. Scaling that result will require broader market access, dependable liquidity and controls that treasury and compliance teams can understand. The Canton Network tokenized deposits pilot shows why institutions are testing blockchain settlement: the technology can preserve existing banking and investment relationships while reducing friction in how corporate cash moves and remains productive over time.