UBS and Ant International have entered into a memorandum of understanding focused on advancing blockchain-based tokenized deposits, with the goal of transforming global payment settlement and liquidity management. The agreement reflects growing interest in blockchain as a tool for improving financial infrastructure and streamlining international fund flows.
Under the collaboration, Ant International, a fintech and digital payments firm, is set to leverage UBS Digital Cash, a blockchain-driven platform that was piloted in 2024. The platform will be applied to support the company’s internal treasury operations and facilitate more efficient handling of multi-currency transactions. The partners positioned this move as an important step toward real-time global payments, particularly within the Ant International ecosystem.
The partnership aims to give Ant International the capability to conduct instant, cross-border transfers across its own entities, while also opening opportunities for UBS to enhance its payment offerings for commercial clients. In addition to simplifying fund flows, the initiative is expected to improve liquidity management by removing delays typically associated with international banking workflows.
Exploring Joint Innovation
The two companies plan to investigate further product development using Ant’s Whale platform, a blockchain-based internal treasury management tool. Whale is currently used to process a significant share of the company’s on-chain transactions and already supports real-time clearing across multiple currencies. The platform is envisioned as a foundation for joint experimentation and advancing tokenized banking solutions.
The memorandum was signed during an event at UBS’s Singapore office, highlighting the city-state’s role as a hub for digital asset innovation. Although the agreement’s technical specifics remain undisclosed, the companies indicated that it aligns with broader industry initiatives focused on blockchain-enabled finance.
Link to MAS Project Guardian
The initiative aligns closely with Singapore’s ongoing Project Guardian, led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The program includes live use cases across tokenized bank liabilities, allowing traditional deposits to be represented as digital tokens governed by regulatory compliance. UBS is among the financial institutions already participating in Project Guardian’s trials.
The project’s foreign exchange workstream has developed documentation and risk frameworks for tokenized liabilities operating on shared ledger environments. Participating institutions include BNY Mellon, HSBC, and OCBC. This work suggests that cross-border payment optimization could reduce associated costs by more than 12%, potentially saving global businesses over $50 billion by 2030. Around-the-clock real-time settlement is among the envisioned outcomes.
While the new agreement between UBS and Ant International aligns with these broader industry efforts, details—including supported blockchain networks, currencies, and transaction volumes—have not been formally disclosed. No regulatory approval or licensing from MAS has been publicly announced at this stage.
Toward Interoperable Digital Asset Networks
Ant International has signaled its interest in helping develop open frameworks for digital asset networks alongside institutions like DBS Bank and OCBC. These efforts include guidance on multi-chain interoperability, enabling digital assets to move fluidly across separate blockchain ecosystems. The partners also emphasized the importance of setting clear benchmarks for vendors and platform providers.
Research connected to Project Guardian indicates that treasury technology providers should prioritize working with Singapore-based financial institutions already engaged in these trials. Several banks are reportedly nearing the rollout of tokenized banking systems that could support cross-border liquidity management and settle transactions using tokenized bank deposits.
With UBS and Ant International now formalizing their collaboration, the financial sector may be moving closer to real-world deployment of blockchain-based payment rails that support faster, transparent, and programmable global finance.
