What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: Cari said it raised $32.5 million in the first tranche of its initial external funding round, entirely from banks; more than 30 banks have joined the network and another 40-plus are in active discussions, and the company said its minimum viable product launched on March 31 with a fuller product suite delivered on July 31.
- Institutions involved: Cari named its six Design Partner Banks as First Horizon Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Old National Bank and SouthState Bank, and also cited Glacier Bank among investors; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a Stifel company, served as financial advisor.
- Regulatory/technical context: Cari describes itself as a bank-governed digital money network for regulated financial institutions to bring deposits on-chain; the platform includes programmability, wallets, and tools for banks to mint, transfer and burn tokenized deposits, and reporting says it remains pre-production.
- What to watch next: Watch whether Cari moves from pilot/pre-production into production, adds more bank participants and integrations, and rolls out additional programmable money products; no specific launch date was identified.
Why it matters
The funding suggests regional and mid-size banks are willing to back shared tokenized-deposit infrastructure as an alternative to relying on third-party stablecoin models for always-on payments.
HKMA Relevance
Indirect: The story reflects a broader shift toward bank-issued tokenized money and programmable deposits, an area relevant to Hong Kong’s interest in tokenization and regulated digital-money infrastructure.
Story details
Sources
- Primary source: https://www.cari.com/news
- Secondary source: https://www.ledgerinsights.com/us-tokenized-deposit-network-cari-raises-32-5-million-from-banks