• Uber used HSBC tokenized bank deposits to buy Franklin Templeton tokenized money market fund shares through Tradeweb, with Fireblocks providing wallet infrastructure, per CoinDesk.
• Purchases and part-redemptions, including over a weekend, settled on the Canton Network using delivery-versus-payment, so the fund tokens and the payment moved together.
• The cash leg is a tokenized bank deposit described as commercial bank money, so the bank stays the obligor and no stablecoin issuer is involved.
• No transaction size, yield or pilot dates were disclosed, and the arrangement remains a pilot.
• Treasurers should ask who owes the cash at each step and how weekend redemptions are funded before treating this as production-ready.

Uber has run a pilot in which tokenized bank deposits bought and redeemed tokenized money market fund shares outside market hours, including weekends, according to CoinDesk's report on a press release from the companies involved. The headline is treasury plumbing, not crypto exposure. The substantive questions are who owes the cash at each step and how settlement behaves, and the report discloses no size, yield or dates.

What the pilot did

In the test, Uber used HSBC's tokenized bank deposits to buy shares in Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund through Tradeweb, with Fireblocks providing wallet infrastructure, according to CoinDesk's report on a Friday press release. Uber could also redeem part of its holdings, including over a weekend, and the transactions settled together on the Canton Network. The stated aim is keeping funds invested while retaining access to cash for payments.

Why the settlement design matters

Delivery-versus-payment settlement means the fund tokens and the payment moved together, per CoinDesk. That removes the gap in which one leg of a trade has settled and the other has not, a standard settlement risk when cash and securities move on separate schedules. The cash leg here is a tokenized bank deposit, described as commercial bank money, so the bank remains the obligor rather than a stablecoin issuer. That design choice is the part worth tracking.

What is not disclosed

CoinDesk's report discloses no transaction size, yield or start and end dates, and it says the arrangement remains a pilot. Odette Rodrigues, Uber's vice president of corporate finance, treasury and capital markets, called it an important first step toward a more efficient 24/7 model for managing working capital. Without volumes or returns, the pilot shows that the plumbing worked for one corporate treasury, not that it is cheaper, safer or ready for production.

What treasurers should take from it

The pilot targets a specific cost: companies that must pay at night or on weekends often hold extra cash rather than invest it, CoinDesk notes. Rodrigues said the solution could reduce the need to maintain liquidity buffers. Treasurers weighing a similar structure should ask which entity owes the cash at each step, how a weekend redemption is funded, and what happens if the ledger or wallet provider is unavailable. HSBC announced tokenised deposit-based treasury capabilities in November 2023, so the bank side is not new.