Canton Network Powers First Live Tokenized Treasury Trade via Tradeweb
In a groundbreaking real-time settlement using USDCx, Virtu Financial acquired a tokenized US Treasury from Franklin Templeton through Tradeweb's platform.
An onchain transaction featuring tokenized US Treasury securities has been successfully completed by Tradeweb, the institutional electronic trading platform, with the deal seeing Franklin Templeton send a tokenized Treasury security to Virtu Financial via the Canton Network in return for tokenized cash.
The role of Tradeweb in the transaction encompassed both execution and price discovery capabilities, while settlement synchronization between the tokenized Treasury and tokenized cash was handled by the Canton Network. Real-time settlement was achieved for the trade, according to the companies involved, though the transaction's exact value was not made public.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, a Tradeweb spokesperson characterized the transaction as the first real-time buying and selling of a tokenized US Treasury to be settled against USDCx, which is a stablecoin backed by USDC and issued on Canton. The deal brought together participants including Blockdaemon, Digital Asset, Societe Generale, Franklin Templeton, Tradeweb and Virtu Financial.
The announcement notes that this transaction comes ahead of the anticipated rollout of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) Tokenization Services scheduled for later this year. The DTCC has stated that the service will enable participants to tokenize selected stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and US Treasury securities while preserving the identical investor protections and ownership rights that accompany traditional assets.
This transaction represents another milestone in Franklin Templeton's ongoing push into tokenized financial assets. In recent months, the asset manager formed a partnership with Binance enabling institutions to utilize tokenized money market fund shares as trading collateral with the assets staying in regulated custody, and collaborated with Ondo Finance to introduce tokenized ETFs onto blockchain networks.
Governments expand tokenized bond initiatives
Government entities worldwide have also been broadening initiatives aimed at bringing sovereign debt onto blockchain infrastructure. Multiple jurisdictions have introduced digital bond programs designed to test blockchain-based issuance, settlement and market infrastructure.
Among the earliest jurisdictions to issue tokenized government bonds was Hong Kong, which launched its first digital green bond in 2023. In November 2025, the government completed its third digital green bond issuance, securing HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion) spread across four currencies, which it described as the world's largest digital bond issuance at that time.
In recent weeks, Hong Kong announced plans to construct a digital asset platform via the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to facilitate the issuance and settlement of tokenized bonds, with intentions to broaden the infrastructure to encompass other digital assets and link it with tokenization platforms throughout the region.
In another jurisdiction, the UK government has designated HSBC Orion to provide support for its Digital Gilt Instrument pilot, a program created to test blockchain-based issuance, settlement and secondary trading of government bonds.
At the same time, the market for tokenized US Treasury products has expanded to reach $14.6 billion, based on data from RWA.xyz. The sector encompasses 84 on-chain products and represents the largest segment within the tokenized real-world asset market.
