Uber completed a pilot with HSBC, Franklin Templeton, Tradeweb and Fireblocks that put corporate cash into a tokenized money market fund on the Canton Network. The test let the company redeem holdings outside market hours, including over a weekend. It remains a pilot.
Uber tested a way to keep corporate cash earning yield around the clock while keeping it available for payments, using tokenized funds and bank deposits on the Canton Network. The companies announced the pilot in a Friday press release shared with CoinDesk.
How the pilot worked
Uber used HSBC's tokenized bank deposits to buy Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund shares through Tradeweb, with Fireblocks providing wallet infrastructure. Uber could also redeem part of its holdings, including over a weekend.
Trades used delivery-versus-payment settlement, so the fund tokens and the payment moved together. That reduces the risk of one side completing without the other.
Why idle cash matters
The problem is practical. Cash sitting in bank accounts earns less than money invested in short-term funds, but retrieving it can take time. Companies that pay at night or over weekends often keep extra cash on hand instead of investing it.
Bitcoin.com News reported that Uber bought the Franklin Templeton fund on Tuesday and sold it on a Sunday. That earned 1.5 more days of yield than a traditional fund, which would have to be sold on Friday.
Uber's vice president of corporate finance, treasury and capital markets, Odette Rodrigues, called the test "an important first step in our journey towards a more efficient, 24/7 model" for managing working capital.
A market still in early stages
The wider tokenization market is still in its initial stages. Only $40 billion in assets have been tokenized to date, according to RWA.xyz.
Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov told Bloomberg he expects hundreds of companies to begin using this model within the next 18 months, as reported by Bitcoin.com News.
Sources: CoinDesk, Bitcoin News
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