8 Production Use Cases of Canton Network in Financial Markets

Large financial institutions use the public Canton Network in live systems that process hundreds of billions of dollars every day. In this post, I describe eight distinct production use cases from financial markets. These systems support a wide range of activities, including short-term lending, securities lending, trading, payments, and recording rights to future payments.

The common problem that Canton solves across all these systems is enabling several independent companies to agree on the outcome of a transaction without any single company controlling the entire process or having access to everyone else's data. If you want to learn more on how it works, read: Deploying Smart Contracts Without a Global Ledger.

Broadridge: Short-Term Bank Loans

Broadridge builds systems that banks use to process trades and payments. One system handles short-term loans lasting only a few hours. For example, a bank might need cash in the morning to make a payment, even though it expects to receive money later that same day.

The bank gets this cash through a transaction called a repo. In a repo, the bank sells bonds to another party and agrees to buy them back shortly afterward at a slightly higher price. At the agreed time, the bank returns the cash plus a fee and gets its bonds back. If the bank fails to repay, the lender can sell the bonds. This means a repo only covers the time from 9:00 to 11:00 instead of requiring the bank to borrow for a full day.

Normally, the exchange goes through several companies and computer systems. One system holds the bonds, another moves the cash, and both banks keep their own copy of the agreement. If one bank records the return at 11:00 and the other records it at 11:30, the problem might not show up until the cash and bonds are supposed to move. The transfer could then fail or be delayed while staff figures out which version is right.

Broadridge's Distributed Ledger Repo platform keeps one shared record of the agreement and every change both parties accept. Canton carries this shared record between the firms. Canton doesn't need to hold the bonds or cash. The bonds can stay in their existing account, and DLR can tell an existing payment system when to send the money. Only the firms involved see the transaction details.

DLR began in June 2021 and moved to Canton in 2023. In its first week, it handled an average of $25 billion daily. By July 2026, the daily average had reached $365 billion, with $8 trillion processed that month. These figures reflect active financial activity, not a trial or forecast.

EquiLend: Share Lending Records

EquiLend creates systems that help companies lend shares. For example, an investment fund might lend 10,000 shares to a bank for several weeks. The bank pays a fee, holds cash to cover potential losses if the shares aren't returned, and later returns 10,000 shares of the same company. A bank might need these shares to fulfill a promise to deliver them in another trade when it doesn't have enough shares available.

This isn't a single handover followed by a single return. If the share price rises, the bank must put up more cash because replacing the shares would now cost the fund more. Fees can change, and the fund can ask for the shares back early. Both firms usually keep their own records. If one firm updates a fee on Monday and the other on Tuesday, their systems calculate different payment amounts. Employees then have to reconcile the difference.

EquiLend's 1Source replaces the two separate loan records with one record on Canton. It records price updates, fee changes, and early return requests once. Both firms then use this single record as the starting point for their accounting and payments. The record can also show if the bank failed to return the shares and the fund bought replacements elsewhere.

The shares themselves do not move through Canton in this case. Canton tracks the loan history: what the parties agreed, what changed, and what each side now owes. Each firm can keep its current systems without treating the other firm's private database as the official record.

DTCC: Digital Bond Ownership

DTCC operates infrastructure used by banks and other financial institutions to hold and transfer US shares and bonds. Its subsidiary DTC maintains the official record of which institution has rights to those assets.

That matters when assets are represented digitally. A bank can create its own digital record that represents a bond, but that record alone does not change DTC's official ownership record. Unless the digital representation is linked to the authoritative DTC record, transferring it does not give the buyer rights to the actual bond.

DTC's new service begins with a bond already in its records. DTC moves the bond's record to a separate account. This stops the ordinary record from being transferred while the digital version is in use. DTC then creates a digital entry reflecting the bond's rights. This transferable entry is called a token. The bond stays at DTC. If DTC deletes the token, it moves the bond back to its ordinary account.

Canton lets banks transfer this digital entry or use it in another transaction. A bank can sell the entry or hold it to secure a short loan. DTC still decides if the entry matches a real bond and who owns the rights. DTC can fix an error or force a transfer if an owner loses the token's secret key. The digital entry represents rights to the bond because DTC links it to its official ownership record.

DTC does not send payment when the token is sold. A separate Canton application can handle both actions at once. The token moves to the buyer and the money moves to the seller. If either transfer fails, neither happens. The buyer cannot pay without getting the bond, and the seller cannot give up the bond without getting the money.

Société Générale: New Digital Bonds

Société Générale took a different approach from DTC: instead of creating a digital representation of an existing bond, it issued the bond digitally from the start.

The bank sold short-term bonds in the U.S. to DRW, a trading firm. Ownership was recorded on the public Canton Network from the moment the bonds were issued, rather than being maintained first in a conventional system and represented digitally later. The interest rate could change before repayment.

The firms handled different parts. Société Générale got the money and owed future payments. Its subsidiary SG-FORGE tracked how many bonds existed and who owned them. DRW bought the bonds. BNY handled payments to the bond owner.

Canton gave these firms one record showing the bond was created and delivered to DRW. This did not turn Société Générale's promise into guaranteed money. If the bank failed to pay, the record would still show who was owed money, but it could not supply the missing funds. The ordinary legal agreement for the bond therefore remained essential.

This design differs from DTC's service. DTC creates a transferable digital entry for a bond already in its system. Société Générale created a new debt in digital form from the start.

Circle: Digital Dollars

Once a digital bond can move on Canton, its buyer also needs a digital currency that can move with it. Circle issues USDC, a digital version of the US dollar. One USDC is designed to remain worth one dollar. Circle holds money and investments to back the USDC in circulation, and approved customers can exchange USDC for regular dollars with Circle.

To create USDCx, a company starts with USDC held on Ethereum. The two systems keep their balances separate. Adding 100 USDC to Canton creates two spendable copies. The owner can spend the original 100 on Ethereum and the new 100 on Canton. Both systems would see the same money as available.

Circle prevents double spending by locking the original USDC in an Ethereum holding account. If a company deposits 100 USDC there, it can no longer use those 100 USDC on Ethereum. Canton then creates 100 new digital dollars called USDCx. The company can spend these USDCx on Canton while the original USDC stays locked.

The process also works in reverse. Canton first removes the 100 USDCx, and only then does the holding account release the original 100 USDC on Ethereum. Different computer groups verify both the deposit and the removal. This verification stops both versions from being spendable at the same time.

This gives Canton a way to pay for purchases recorded there. If a bank buys a digital bond for $1 million, it gets the right to future repayment from the seller. Canton can send that right to the bank and send one million USDCx to the seller in one step. Both transfers happen together, or neither happens.

Temple: Exchange for Digital Assets

USDCx moves digital dollars on Canton, while CBTC moves a claim backed by locked bitcoin. Temple uses both to exchange assets available on the network. Firms can also trade Canton Coin and digital records for gold and silver. A buyer says how many units they want and the highest price they will pay. A seller says how many units they offer and the lowest price they will accept. Temple pairs a buyer with a seller when their prices meet.

Before making an offer, a firm marks just the amount it wants to trade as reserved on Canton. The firm stays the owner, but it cannot use that amount elsewhere while the offer is open. Temple receives permission to transfer the reserved amount if a matching offer appears. Canceling the offer makes the amount available to the owner again.

Temple finds matching offers in its own computer system. Adding or canceling offers doesn't require a Canton transaction so that the list can change quickly. Temple says its software can check more than 100,000 orders per second and find a match in under 10 milliseconds. These numbers show the system's claimed speed, not how much real customers actually use it.

Canton handles the part where ownership actually changes. The item reserved by the seller moves to the buyer, and the payment reserved by the buyer moves to the seller. Both transfers happen in one step. If the seller can't deliver the item, the buyer keeps the money. If the buyer can't pay, the seller keeps the item. Temple gets speed from its own offer list and a clear final result from Canton.

Haven: Institutional Lending

Haven matches borrowers with institutional lenders and verifies both parties' identities. The lender knows exactly who gets the money and sets the terms for that borrower. The two firms agree on the loan amount, interest rate, repayment dates, and protections if the borrower doesn't repay.

Loans can be secured with collateral—assets set aside to protect the lender if the borrower defaults. If the collateral value falls below the required level, the borrower must add more.

Haven records these rules on Canton. When a loan starts, the loan amount goes to the borrower and the agreed collateral gets locked. Haven's system regularly checks if the collateral's value matches the remaining debt. If the collateral value drops, it may ask for more. If the borrower repays or the collateral value rises, it releases any extra. The same system manages interest, payments, and the return of leftover collateral at the end.

A lender can also agree to accept less than $100 in collateral for a $100 loan. This works because the borrower is a known company, not an anonymous account. Both companies sign a standard legal agreement so the lender can claim any missing amount through regular court processes. Canton can enforce transfers for property already recorded there, but it cannot force a borrower to pay money they no longer have.

CBTC: Bitcoin on Canton

CBTC lets Canton applications use Bitcoin without letting the original owner spend the same Bitcoin elsewhere. This is needed because Canton cannot control Bitcoin's records. A Canton application might claim a company sold or set aside one Bitcoin, even though the company could still send the original Bitcoin to someone else. This would give the buyer or lender no reliable claim to the Bitcoin.

CBTC stops both copies from circulating at the same time. The owner sends the Bitcoin to a special Bitcoin address controlled by a group of independent operators. The Bitcoin stays locked there, and its previous owner cannot spend it. Only after this does Canton create an entry for the same amount under the name CBTC.

No single operator can approve that step. The system has ten operators, and at least six must confirm that the bitcoin arrived. Bitcoin must also confirm the deposit six times before CBTC is created. This delay makes reversing the original transfer much harder. Once CBTC exists, Canton can transfer it to a buyer on Temple or lock it as collateral for a loan on Haven. The original bitcoin remains untouched at the shared address.

To reverse the process, the owner removes CBTC from Canton and provides a Bitcoin address. At least six operators must agree before the matching bitcoin leaves the shared address. One dishonest operator cannot steal it, but six dishonest or compromised operators could approve a false release. The design replaces trust in one company with a clear rule: six of ten operators must agree.

Summary

The scale comes from actual money processed by working systems, not from claims about how many operations the software could handle. Broadridge reported an average of $365 billion in repos daily. Temple processed $699.4 million in trades. Live share loans and a completed bond issue show real-world use, even though their values aren't public. Participants include major banks, the central depository that tracks ownership for many US shares and bonds, trading firms, and companies that hold digital assets for clients. Canton transactions change who can claim bonds, who gets paid, what secures loans, and how much borrowers repay. These rights and obligations remain important outside the network.

Canton doesn't require firms to use a single financial product or a single central database. Instead, it lets firms involved in a transaction share a common outcome while keeping their own systems. Other firms don't see the transaction details.

What is also becoming visible is a broader ecosystem of interoperating products rather than a collection of isolated applications. Some services build on assets and capabilities provided by others. New products do not have to recreate every part of the financial stack themselves. They can use assets and services that already exist on the network.

The same network therefore supports funding, loans, trading, payments, and ownership records, with applications increasingly able to build on one another. Major institutions already use the public Canton Network as infrastructure for live transactions, including those worth hundreds of billions of dollars a day.

Reviewed by Łukasz Lenart and Michał Ostruszka.