A group of US regional banks are developing the Cari Network, a tokenized deposit platform built on ZKsync, a layer 2 network, as lenders seek a regulated path to modernize digital payments.
The network announced Tuesday is being developed with banks such as Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon, M&T Bank, KeyCorp and Old National Bancorp. It is designed to let banks convert customer deposits into digital tokens that can be moved instantly between institutions – without those funds ever leaving the banking system.
That is an important difference from stablecoins, which are often issued by non-bank companies. Cari says the tokens will still represent regular bank deposits, meaning they will remain on banks’ balance sheets and remain subject to existing regulations and FDIC insurance.
Under the hood, the system will run on “Prividium,” a private, permissioned blockchain built by Matter Labs, the main developer company building the ZKsync network. Only approved participants – such as banks – can use it, and transactions are designed to be both fast and private, while still allowing regulators to monitor their activities when necessary.
The efforts reflect a growing push by banks to compete with crypto-native payment systems by offering comparable speed and 24-hour settlement, but within known regulatory guardrails.
The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America has backed the project, according to a blog post, highlighting regional lenders’ interest in upgrading payments infrastructure without risking losing deposits to newer digital alternatives.
The Cari network will be rolled out more widely in 2026 and the banks involved will test how these tokenized deposits are created, transferred between parties and converted back into regular US dollars.
“Banks should be leading the next phase of digital money, not reacting to it,” said Gene Ludwig, CEO of Cari.
Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski added that the project shows how banks can use blockchain technology and still meet privacy and compliance requirements.
“Financial infrastructure is undergoing the same shift that computing experienced decades ago, from siled databases to shared, programmable infrastructure,” Gluchowski said in the blog post. “Prividium allows banks to issue and move deposits on the blockchain infrastructure while maintaining the privacy, compliance and control required by regulated institutions.”
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