DBS and Citi settle USD payment on a weekend using tokenized deposits
RWA & Tokenization ·
The two banks say they moved dollars between Singapore and the United States outside normal banking hours, marking what they describe as a first for this kind of transfer.
DBS and Citi completed the transaction using tokenized deposits rather than conventional payment rails, allowing the funds to settle on a non-business day when standard banking infrastructure is typically closed, according to The Block. The banks frame the move as evidence that cross-border dollar payments can operate continuously rather than being tied to weekday settlement windows.
The transfer ran on Swift's Digital Ledger, with the payment reportedly settling within minutes rather than following the multi-day timelines associated with older correspondent banking processes. This forms part of a wider arrangement in which DBS and Citi are partnering to enable round-the-clock, 24/7 cross-border USD payments built on tokenised deposits, a structure the two banks detail in their own announcement on DBS's newsroom page. The weekend transaction is presented as a live demonstration of that broader capability rather than an isolated test.
Coverage of the announcement has been picked up across multiple outlets, including a report from wublockchain.xyz, with four distinct sources tracked discussing the same cluster of news. The consistent detail across accounts is that the payment used tokenized deposits, ran on Swift's Digital Ledger infrastructure, and completed on a weekend day when traditional settlement systems are generally unavailable.
The development is being read as a signal of institutional movement toward blockchain-based settlement for conventional currency transfers, rather than solely for crypto-native assets. Banks have long faced constraints around weekend and after-hours processing for cross-border dollar payments, and tokenized deposit structures are being tested as one way to remove that friction.
What remains unclear from the available material is the transaction size, the specific counterparties or accounts involved beyond DBS and Citi, and whether this capability will be extended into a standing, publicly available service or remains a demonstration. Also unaddressed is the timeline for broader rollout beyond the Singapore-US corridor, and whether other banks on Swift's Digital Ledger network plan similar tests.