Wells Fargo joins JPMorgan and Citi in the race to tokenize Wall Street’s settlement rails

Wells Fargo has announced plans to tokenize its settlement rails, joining JPMorgan and Citi in the race to bring blockchain technology to the world of financial transactions. The bank will begin offering tokenized deposits for select corporate and commercial clients later this year, enabling round-the-clock U.S. dollar-to-British pound transactions on its proprietary blockchain.

While the initial rollout will be limited to a few clients, countries, and currencies, Wells Fargo aims to expand the system to more clients, countries, and currencies throughout 2027. Tokenized deposits are essentially conventional bank balances on a blockchain, retaining the same regulatory protections and deposit-insurance eligibility as existing deposit products.

This move follows the bank's trademark application for WFUSD, which could be associated with a deposit token or stablecoin, and its development of blockchain payment rails since 2019.

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