Cari Network, a bank-led consortium, has selected Matter Labs’ Prividium infrastructure to build a private, bank-governed network for tokenized deposits. The platform, built on ZKsync and anchored to Ethereum, is designed to allow participating regional banks to issue and settle tokenized deposits around the clock while keeping them on their balance sheets. This initiative aims to help mid-sized banks counter the encroachment of stablecoins and adapt to evolving financial infrastructure.
Cari Network has chosen Matter Labs‘ Prividium infrastructure to power a bank-governed tokenized deposit network for US lenders. The platform is built on ZKsync and anchored to Ethereum to let banks issue and move tokenized deposits continuously.
These deposits will remain on bank balance sheets as liabilities. The move comes as lawmakers debate stablecoin frameworks and issuers encroach on traditional banking roles.
Five banks, including Huntington Bancshares and First Horizon, have been involved in designing and testing the network since February, according to a report. The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America has backed the model, arguing keeping deposits within regulated institutions is critical for local economies.
Cari’s tokens represent existing customer deposits and are intended to stay within a permissioned environment governed by bank frameworks. They are not designed to circulate freely in decentralized finance.
The Prividium ledger enables instant settlement between verified counterparties while separating transaction data from personally identifiable information. ZKsync CEO Alex Gluchowski said the architecture was designed with US banking privacy and supervisory expectations in mind.
“Financial infrastructure is being redesigned in real time, and mid-sized banks are the ones being left behind,” Gluchowski stated. He framed the network as a tool for banks to “lead that transition, rather than be displaced by it.”
Gluchowski argued that tokenized deposits “are complementary to stablecoins.” He added that ZKsync sees deposits being used as “the payment tokens by banks when money needs to move in and out” of their private infrastructure.
