A consortium of financial and blockchain firms has successfully linked the XRP Ledger to traditional interbank settlement rails. The pilot transaction enabled near real-time, cross-border settlement of tokenized U.S. Treasury bills outside normal banking hours, completed in under five seconds. According to a tweet, participants included Ondo Finance, Mastercard, and JP Morgan‘s blockchain platform Kinexys. The milestone demonstrates a hybrid model where a public blockchain handles asset token movement while traditional rails facilitate fiat settlement.
Blockchain settlement rails are increasingly becoming intertwined with the global financial system. A group of firms recently achieved a feat that could introduce 24/7 settlements for traditional financial markets.
According to a tweet, the tokenization platform Ondo Finance, card services provider Mastercard, and JP Morgan‘s blockchain platform, Kinexys, are involved in achieving the latest milestone. The companies successfully completed a pilot transaction that connected Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) with interbank settlement rails.
The pilot linked XRPL to global banking infrastructure, enabling institutions to execute cross-border transactions in a single, integrated flow. The assets used for the project were tokenized U.S. Treasury bills.
The feat marked the first time tokenized Treasuries were settled across borders in near real time, outside traditional banking hours. Completed in under five seconds, rather than the usual one to three business days, the pilot transaction highlighted a hybrid model.
In this model, XRPL handled the asset token movement while traditional banking rails facilitated fiat settlement. Ondo Finance stated, “Tokenized assets are no longer separate from the global financial system.”
Ondo further stated, “For the first time, a public blockchain and global banking infrastructure settled a cross-border transaction of a tokenized fund together in real time. Together, we’re laying the groundwork for 24/7 global markets that never close.”
With Treasuries moving like crypto on settlement rails that do not have closing hours, the $30 trillion U.S. Treasury market could be opened to a new wave of investors. Multiple financial institutions, including Wall Street’s biggest firms, are already scrambling to get on this bandwagon.
Besides Treasuries, these institutions are also attempting to tokenize bonds and deposits. A few days ago, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to launch a new tokenization service for bonds and Treasuries in October.
Meanwhile, the tokenized stocks sector has witnessed massive growth over the past year. In fact, the market cap of the tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) sector as a whole more than tripled from $5.42 billion to $19.32 billion in the last 15 months ending March 2026.
