Six chartered US banks are now collaborating on a shared tokenized deposit network. Fireblocks powers the institutional infrastructure layer underneath it. That network is the Cari Network, and together with its Design Partner Banks, it provides another proof point that the inter-bank problem in transaction banking is solvable when banks build together, rather than waiting for a single institution or regulatory standard to define the market.
The Inter-Bank Digital Asset Gap Is Where Regional Banks Compete
Regional, mid-size, and community banks hold deep and broad corporate relationships. They have the local market expertise, decades-long client history, and trusted lending relationships. That combination gives them access to operating accounts that global banks can’t replicate from a branch in another city.
What they lack is not another payment rail. RTP and FedNow have already advanced instant payments with varied rates of adoption.
What they lack is the infrastructure layer beneath those rails: a shared, programmable foundation for customer deposits. Instant payment schemes move messages faster, but they do not make money programmable. They cannot run smart contract-driven workflows, deliver a platform on which to build new products, or serve as a shared ledger across a trusted network.
That is the inter-bank digital asset gap. It is both a speed and infrastructure gap. Money center banks are closing it by building proprietary blockchain layers for their own customers. No regional bank can justify that build alone, and a proprietary network defeats the purpose: deposits need to move between institutions.
The gap is an opening. Within a few years, tokenized deposits and the programmability that come with it will be a baseline functionality for how banks’ corporate customers move and hold digital money. The banks that own this layer by then will hold a commercial advantage — not only because they can move money faster, but because they can build on it.
A shared, bank-governed tokenized deposit network like the Cari Network is one route to get there, enabling banks to design and build shared infrastructure together rather than on their own.
How The Cari Network Works
The Cari Network is the first tokenized deposit network purpose-built for chartered US banks. It enables always-on, programmable money movement through tokenized deposits: bank-issued, FDIC-eligible digital money that moves 24/7, settles in real time, and stays entirely within the regulatory perimeter under which chartered banks already operate.
Each Cari token records a US dollar deposit held at a participating bank on a blockchain ledger. Unlike today’s stablecoins, tokenized deposits preserve the characteristics of traditional bank deposits, remaining on banks’ balance sheets and paying interest, which is a material distinction for corporate treasury clients making decisions now. Once a bank has integrated with Cari’s on-chain stack, the shared permissioned ledger not only enables getting customers’ cash on chain to power real-time payments. It also becomes infrastructure the bank can build its digital asset strategy on.
Six Design Partner Banks are actively working with Cari to build and integrate with the Network ahead of production later this year: First Horizon Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Old National Bank, and SouthState Bank. In total, more than 30 banks have committed to join the Network, with another 40 in active discussions, representing a combined network and pipeline of more than $10 trillion in assets. The Cari Network has also been endorsed by the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America and recently joined as an American Bankers Association Premier Partner.
The Cari Network’s onchain infrastructure stack runs across three layers. Cari has developed smart contracts in-house, including the Mint, Burn, and Transfer contract calls that move tokenized deposits. ZKsync’s Prividium, built by Matter Labs, provides the fully private, EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain.
Fireblocks provides the operational layer that makes each bank’s participation in the Network real, not just for the Cari Network but also for other digital asset use cases it chooses, including wallet infrastructure assigned to each bank user and organization and role-based access controls configurable down to individual smart contract functions. Banks already on Fireblocks for custody, treasury, or MPC wallets have a direct path into the Cari Network.
Beyond product features as defined above, the Cari Network Rulebook defines participation requirements, risk standards, and member obligations, while the Board of Directors provides governance oversight. Smart contract validations help enforce Cari Network rules, Fireblocks provides institutional-grade wallet infrastructure, and ZKsync’s private Layer 2 technology provides cryptographic integrity for transactions. Together with network-wide anti-financial crime monitoring, anomaly detection, and ongoing risk assessments, these controls are designed to support the safety, soundness, and integrity of the Cari Network.
Early Participants Set The Foundation
The Cari Network’s Design Partner Banks have been working in partnership to design and integrate with the platform since late 2025, contributing to its technical architecture, operating model, and approach to risk and compliance. Banks joining now still have the opportunity to integrate with Cari’s existing products during this formative stage.
The US is not the only market where this layer is forming. Partior is live in inter-bank production for USD, EUR, and SGD. Qivalis, backed by 37 European banks including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, Nordea, and Rabobank, has live euro stablecoin issuance targeted for H2 2026.
While each market is taking its own approach, the underlying questions are remarkably similar: how regulated banks can move digital money across institutions while preserving the safety, trust, and regulatory framework of the banking system.
The inter-bank infrastructure layer is being built now. The question is whether your institution is at the table. Reach out if you’d like to know more.
FAQs
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How is the Cari Network different from what is available today?
Traditional payment rails like ACH and wires are trusted and fully regulated, but they are limited by processing windows, cutoffs, and delays.
Stablecoins and other digital assets offer fast, programmable, and always-on movement, but they often operate outside established regulatory frameworks or meet bank-grade compliance and security requirements.
The Cari Network model combines the strengths of both approaches. It enables instant, 24/7 money movement using fully regulated bank deposits, all within the banking system. Those deposits remain on the bank’s balance sheet, are eligible for FDIC insurance up to applicable limits, can earn yield, and are treated as cash equivalents for accounting purposes. Banks and their clients get the speed of digital rails without leaving the regulatory perimeter they already operate under. -
How does the Cari Network’s technology foundation help banks get started today while supporting future innovation?
The Cari Network provisions and manages the Fireblocks infrastructure as part of network participation, so banks are in active deployment on tokenized deposits without building or operating the underlying digital asset stack themselves.
The same foundation scales with the use case. The wallet infrastructure, custody controls, and policy engine that power Cari Network participation are the same Fireblocks layer that supports tokenized securities, collateral mobility, and connection to other inter-bank networks as those use cases develop.
For banks already operating on Fireblocks, the Cari Network builds on the infrastructure they already know. For US-domiciled banks new to the technology, the Cari Network could be the right place to start, just as tokenized deposits may be the right first use case to build your digital asset strategy.
