DBS Launches Blockchain-Powered Treasury Token Pilot With Ant International

DBS has initiated a treasury token pilot with Ant International for 24/7 treasury and liquidity management.

The project will run on DBS' permissioned blockchain, allowing Ant to utilize the digital token to achieve instant, multi-currency treasury and liquidity management. DBS' permissioned blockchain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which improves the extensibility and interoperability of DBS's payment systems with various industry infrastructures.

DBS' blockchain will also be integrated with Ant's Whale platform - a global treasury management solution that uses blockchain and AI to improve the transparency of fund transfers. This will enable Ant to manage liquidity 24 hours, seven days a week.

The treasury token will enable large corporations such as Ant to reduce the settlement time of intragroup transactions from days to seconds, offering treasurers greater visibility, predictability, and control over cash positions across different entities.

"DBS Treasury Tokens and our partnership with Ant International demonstrates how corporates can seize such opportunities with full confidence that their liquidity management capabilities can scale in tandem," Lim Soon Chong, Group Head of Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank, said.

"DBS’ permissioned blockchain also forms the building block for new efficiencies and capabilities in traditional banking services, such as programmable, fractionalised and atomic value transfer.”

DBS Treasury Tokens is an evolution of the bank's multi-year participation in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-led Project Orchid and Project Guardian to test tokenisation.

Launched in 2022, Project Guardian brings together public and private sector players to develop a framework for issuing and trading digital tokens representing traditional assets like bonds and securities.

Ant is also involved in Project Guardian, developing a treasury management solution that will enable real-time multi-currency clearing and settlement, supporting over 40 currencies. 

Last month, Credit rating agency Moody's announced its participation in Project Guardian, a collaborative initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to explore the potential of asset tokenization in financial markets.

Moody's involvement specifically focuses on the fixed income workstream of Project Guardian. The company will leverage its expertise to provide risk analysis for tokenized fixed income products. This analysis could encompass a wide range of assets, including traditional fixed-income securities, fund units, stablecoins, and even tokenized versions of bank deposits, Moody's said in the announcement.