UK challenger bank Monument has announced plans to tokenize up to £250 million ($335 million) in retail customer deposits on the Midnight Network, in what the bank describes as the first time a UK-regulated institution has done so on a public blockchain.

What's Different Here

Most bank tokenization work to date has focused on institutional clients or closed, permissioned networks. Monument is targeting retail customers directly — specifically the "mass affluent" segment, individuals with £50,000 to £5 million in investable assets.

The deposits will remain interest-bearing, fully backed by Monument, and redeemable one-for-one in sterling. Crucially, they remain covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), maintaining the same consumer protections as conventional savings.

Built on Midnight

Midnight, developed by Shielded Technologies — a company linked to Cardano creator Input Output — uses a privacy-focused blockchain where transaction data remains visible only to the bank and the account holder. Monument says this approach allows it to operate within existing UK banking compliance rules while bringing deposits on-chain.

The first phase mirrors existing savings balances on Midnight. Later phases will add tokenized investment products — private market funds, commodities — and eventually lending against those holdings inside the Monument app.

Broader Implications

Monument Technology, an affiliate, plans to offer this tokenized deposit functionality through a Banking-as-a-Service platform, which could let other institutions adopt the same model. The move signals a shift from institutional-only tokenization experiments toward products built for everyday banking customers.