Tokenization at Investment Banks Survey 2026 Final Report (SODA)

Tokenization at large investment banks is advancing but remains economically and infrastructurally immature, according to a SODA survey of sixteen of the world’s largest investment banks. Activity is clustered in tokenized money, collateral mobility and intraday repo, where links to liquidity, balance‑sheet efficiency and settlement are most concrete, with capital markets issuance, custody, funds and secondary trading treated largely as dependent layers. Most initiatives stall at proof‑of‑concept or pre‑production, reflecting private‑network architectures, unresolved legal and prudential treatment, duplicated off‑chain records, weak 24/7 operational readiness, and the absence of a convergent settlement model. Banks see plausible upside in liquidity coverage ratio and collateral velocity, but benefits are mostly unrealized, funding models are fragmented between business lines and central functions, client willingness to pay is limited, and return‑on‑investment logics remain institution‑specific rather than industry‑wide. Overall, the survey results indicate that tokenization will only become transformative if it can prove hard financial benefits, overcome legal and infrastructure barriers, and move from fragmented pilots into bank-backed, scalable production. [SODA]

BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.