London – In a move described as a first for a UK-regulated bank, Monument Bank has announced plans to tokenize up to £250 million (approximately $335 million) of its retail customer deposits on the Midnight public blockchain, a platform built with privacy at its core.
Beyond being a technical achievement, this collaboration signals a promising new chapter for the banking world: for the first time, a major bank with significant assets under management is demonstrating genuine interest in implementing the approach offered by Midnight. This is no longer an experiment on the fringes, but a serious adoption by a mainstream financial institution, bringing hundreds of millions of pounds in retail deposits onto the blockchain.
Why This Stands Out
Monument’s move is a significant milestone because, until now, explorations of tokenized deposits have largely focused on institutional use cases or closed, permissioned networks. Monument is explicitly targeting retail customers, specifically the mass-affluent segment with investable assets between £50,000 and £5 million. What makes this even more significant is the choice of Midnight as the blockchain infrastructure—a decision indicating that the privacy-centric approach championed by Midnight is seen as capable of meeting the real-world needs of regulated banks.
Mechanism and Security
These tokenized deposits will remain interest-bearing, fully backed by the bank, and redeemable one-to-one for Pound Sterling. Crucially, customer funds will continue to be protected by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), providing the same layer of security as conventional bank deposits.
Monument Bank, which reports having over 100,000 customers and approximately £7 billion in total deposits, will begin the first phase of this project by mirroring savings balances on Midnight’s privacy-focused blockchain. The Midnight Foundation, developed by Shielded Technologies (a company affiliated with Cardano founder Input Output), is providing the blockchain infrastructure for this initiative.
Privacy as the Key to Adoption
A primary reason why Midnight’s approach is considered so promising by institutions like Monument is its ability to safeguard transaction data. The system is designed so that transaction details remain visible only to the bank and the specific customer involved—an absolute requirement in a financial services industry bound by strict confidentiality and compliance regulations.
With Midnight, Monument can leverage the transparency and programmability of a public blockchain without sacrificing the privacy standards that form the foundation of modern banking. This has long been the primary barrier to blockchain adoption in the banking sector, and Midnight offers a solution that is now being implemented in a real-world setting.
Long-Term Vision and Ecosystem Potential
This initiative is about more than just tokenizing deposits. Monument has laid out an extensive roadmap. In subsequent phases, the bank plans to introduce tokenized investment products, such as private market funds and commodities. Following that, they aim to introduce more flexible lending models, allowing customers to borrow against these digital assets directly within the Monument app.
The potential impact could extend even further. Through its affiliate, Monument Technology, the bank plans to offer tokenized deposit functionality via its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform. This move could pave the way for other financial institutions in the UK to adopt a similar model with greater ease.
A Promising New Chapter
The collaboration between Monument Bank and Midnight sends a clear signal: a major bank has chosen to implement the approach offered by Midnight, bringing traditional banking products onto the blockchain while maintaining compliance and privacy. For the industry, this serves as proof that blockchain adoption by mainstream financial institutions is no longer just a theoretical discussion—it has entered a phase of tangible implementation.
With an initial target of £250 million and the potential for expansion across the broader banking ecosystem through the BaaS model, this step by Monument and Midnight could act as a catalyst for the next wave of adoption—where major banks in various jurisdictions begin to follow a similar path. A new chapter for banking—one that is more flexible, programmable, and remains securely within regulatory frameworks—is now closer to reality.
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