BNY is preparing for round-the-clock settlement in US Treasuries as the growth of stablecoins and other tokenised assets begins to put pressure on traditional financial market infrastructure, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The bank said it had facilitated an after-hours Treasury transaction involving stablecoin issuers earlier this year as part of its plans to develop an “always-on” Treasury market.
BNY intends to launch tokenised Treasury products and conduct pilot transactions on its private blockchain by the end of 2026. The report cites a letter to clients signed bt four senior executives as outlining that it is targeting 24/7 settlement for both conventional and tokenised Treasuries in 2027
The initiative reflects the growing importance of US government debt to digital-asset markets. Stablecoins and tokenised Treasury funds commonly invest in short-dated government securities, while the crypto markets in which they operate trade continuously.
BNY said tokenisation could complement longer operating hours by bringing programmability, increased transparency and more predictable settlement to the Treasury market.
The bank’s recent transaction took place after the Federal Reserve’s Fedwire Securities Service had closed for the day. It involved Ripple, issuer of the RLUSD stablecoin, and Dreyfus, acting for OpenEden, which issues the USDO stablecoin. Both digital currencies are backed by short-term US Treasuries.
The transaction was executed through Tradeweb Markets and subsequently settled using conventional cash processes, BNY said. The deal demonstrated how Treasury activity linked to digital-asset markets can continue after the traditional settlement window has ended.
BNY plans to begin expanding its existing settlement infrastructure for securities eligible for settlement through Fedwire later this year, with the longer-term goal of supporting activity across US, European and Asian trading hours.
The bank currently processes around $2.5tn in payments each day across its payment networks and supports average daily clearance of approximately $24.3tn.
The move comes as financial institutions and asset managers increasingly explore tokenisation, in which traditional assets including bonds, equities and private credit are represented as blockchain-based digital tokens.
Proponents argue that tokenised markets could enable faster settlement, continuous trading and lower transaction costs. Critics remain sceptical, arguing that the technology has yet to demonstrate that it can address shortcomings that existing market infrastructure cannot already solve.
The value of tokenised real-world assets has risen more than fourfold since 2025 to approximately $35bn, according to rwa.xyz data. That remains a fraction of the assets held in conventional mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
