Uber tests weekend cash yield with HSBC tokenised deposits

Uber announced that it has completed a pilot in which it paid for a Franklin Templeton tokenised money market fund with HSBC tokenised deposits and sold part of the holding, including over a weekend. Settlement ran on the Canton Network, a blockchain network used by regulated institutions, with Tradeweb and Fireblocks supplying trading and wallet tools.

The announcement came with no pilot dates, no amount and no yield figure. It does however, confirm the mechanism: delivery versus payment, meaning the fund tokens and the deposit tokens change hands in one atomic step, so neither side can complete without the other. Cash settles in a closed loop to accounts that have passed know-your-customer checks.

The practical reading is that this is a treasury story, not a startup-token story. A tokenised deposit is a bank's own deposit liability recorded on a blockchain, so it behaves like cash held at the bank rather than like a stablecoin issued by a third party. The new element is that the deposit can buy a yield-bearing fund at any hour and be sold back on a Sunday.

How HSBC tokenised deposits settled against the Franklin Templeton fund

HSBC Bank USA supplied the deposit tokens as the cash leg. Franklin Templeton supplied the tokenised money market fund, a fund that holds short-term debt and pays a yield. Tradeweb coordinated execution, Fireblocks supplied wallet controls such as signing rules and user permissions, and the Canton Network hosted settlement.

Odette Rodrigues, Uber's vice president of corporate finance, treasury and capital markets, said: "Always-on access to cash and the ability to put liquidity to work more efficiently are increasingly important to our business." She described the pilot as "an important first step in our journey towards a more efficient, 24/7 model."

The corporate treasury arithmetic behind weekend yield

The companies disclosed no yield, so the working here uses an assumed 4 per cent annual rate. On 100 million dollars, one day earns about 10,959 dollars (100 million multiplied by 0.04, divided by 365). If a weekend structure adds 1.5 days of invested cash each week, that is about 16,438 dollars a week, or roughly 855,000 dollars over 52 weeks, before costs.

Costs decide the net figure. Unless the fund or a liquidity provider advances cash, a Sunday redemption cannot be paid from underlying holdings that can only be sold on Monday, and that advance has a price. At an assumed funding cost of 3 per cent, the same 1.5 days costs about 12,329 dollars on 100 million dollars, leaving about 4,110 dollars of the 16,438 dollars. The announcement does not say who provides weekend liquidity or at what price, and that is the number that decides whether the gain is worth having.

Where the Uber pilot leaves sterling treasurers

Ant International's similar transaction became public on 21 October 2026, using HSBC tokenised deposits to buy a Franklin Templeton tokenised money market fund, and HSBC called it a first. Uber's pilot came nine days later with the same pairing of bank deposit token and tokenised fund, which suggests a repeatable template rather than a one-off.

As of 13 April 2026, HSBC's tokenised deposit service lists the United Kingdom among its live markets and supports sterling alongside dollars, euros, Hong Kong dollars and Singapore dollars. The Uber pilot used deposits issued by HSBC Bank USA and says nothing about the UK. Canton already has a London link through LSEG's move to become a Canton Network Super Validator, and BNY has shown a tokenised Treasury settling in minutes for a Citadel repo, but sterling remains the gap: the UK's seven-bank sterling tokenised deposit pilot had yet to report in September.

Access is institutional. The service is open to eligible corporate and institutional clients after onboarding, so a seed-stage founder is not the immediate user. The relevance for a founder is competitive: a funded scale-up with several million pounds in operating cash is the kind of client these products are built for, and three questions set what weekend yield is worth to it. Is there a sterling version of the same fund-and-deposit pairing? Can it be sold on a Sunday in pounds? Who funds the weekend? This is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.

The evidence to watch is a second asset manager beyond Franklin Templeton, a sterling pairing, and a published price for weekend liquidity.

Key takeaways

• Uber announced a recent pilot in which HSBC tokenised deposits paid for a Franklin Templeton tokenised money market fund, with partial sales including over a weekend, settled on the Canton Network.

• No dates, amounts or yield were disclosed, so any weekend gain is an assumption; at 4 per cent, 1.5 extra days is worth about 16,438 dollars a week on 100 million dollars before costs.

• The price of weekend liquidity is the open variable: an assumed 3 per cent funding cost would take about three quarters of that gain.

• HSBC's tokenised deposit service lists the United Kingdom and sterling as of 13 April 2026, but the Uber pilot used HSBC Bank USA and does not mention the UK.