The Great British Tokenised Deposit (GBTD) initiative has completed its first live customer transactions. Compared to tokenized deposit initiatives in other countries, GBTD is distinctive in targeting retail applications. The tokenized deposits can still be used to settle wholesale digital asset transactions, but the first pilot transactions were retail focused.
The seven UK banks are Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander, with the project coordinated by industry body UK Finance and Quant developing the platform. Each bank has its own tokenized deposit solution, so GBTD provides a messaging layer for interoperability and clearing.
A central feature is the ability to lock funds, which was used in all the initial customer pilots. The mortgage process has been a use case since the very beginning, with funds locked for two remortgage completions and released on settlement. This also means that the cash can earn interest in the interim.
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