Monument Bank dey target November for £250M Midnight Deposit Launch

Monument Bank dey target November to roll out tokenized retail deposits for Midnight after dem don solve one custody wahala wey delay the project for several months. Founder Mintoo Bhandari talk say the bank don choose one Canadian custodian wey fit meet the service requirements, even though dem never publicly identify the provider.

The rollout go move Monument partnership with Midnight from development enter customer-facing banking product. The first phase dey target up to £250 million deposits, wey dem go represent digitally for Midnight, while funds still dey back am for Monument, redeemable for pounds sterling and covered by existing deposit protections.

Custody Bottleneck Pushes Monument Toward November

Monument and the Midnight Foundation announce the initiative for March, present am as effort to bring regulated retail bank deposits enter public blockchain infrastructure. Monument dey serve more than 100,000 customers and dey manage approximately £7 billion deposits.

The project later delay because of institutional custody requirements. Monument find am hard to see UK crypto custodian wey fit meet the necessary regulatory standards and still support the privacy technology wey the Midnight implementation need.

Bhandari talk say the bank finally find suitable provider for Canada and now dem dey expect retail rollout around November.

Charles Hoskinson recently talk too say Monument dey expected to go live with Midnight before year end and e identify qualified custody as the main obstacle to deployment.

As dem don select provider, the project now dey move toward custodian onboarding and completion of the infrastructure wey customer deployment need.

£250M in Deposits Will Operate Behind the Monument App

The first phase base on existing bank deposits, no be to create separate speculative crypto asset.

Each tokenized deposit dey designed to correspond one-to-one with pounds wey Monument hold. Customers go continue to earn interest, still fit redeem deposits for GBP, and remain covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Users no go need to buy or manage crypto assets. Monument plan to keep the blockchain layer behind its existing banking experience, make customers interact through the Monument app while Midnight dey provide the underlying digital infrastructure.

Privacy dey central to the implementation. Midnight dey use zero-knowledge technology and dual-state architecture wey separate publicly verifiable blockchain activity from private information. Monument intend to keep sensitive customer and transaction data shielded while still maintain the auditability wey regulated financial services require.

Midnight dey operate as separate Layer 1 wey connect to the broader Cardano ecosystem, no be to settle transactions directly on Cardano. Its NIGHT governance token start as Cardano Native Asset, wey be the clearest infrastructure link between the two ecosystems.

Monument Plans Investments and Lending After Tokenized Deposits

The £250 million deposit program na the first stage of broader rollout.

Second phase go bring tokenized investment products from global asset managers enter the Monument app. Earlier plans mention areas like private equity, commodity funds and structured products, while dem go still keep blockchain interaction largely invisible to customers.

Third phase go introduce Lombard-style lending, allow customers to borrow against eligible investments without first selling them.

Monument Technology, wey be affiliate of Monument Bank, also dey plan to explore how to offer tokenized deposit infrastructure to other financial institutions through its Banking as a Service platform.

The November target don give the project specific operational milestone after the delays around custody. Monument don move from selecting privacy infrastructure to identifying custody provider, remain onboarding and the first customer issuance as the next concrete steps to put tokenized retail bank deposits into production for Midnight.