A new banking network called Cari may quietly rewrite the rules of how American banks move money, and five U.S. regional banks are already putting it to the test. Built mainly on blockchain technology and backed by ZKsync and digital asset firm BitGo, the Cari Network allows banks to issue digital tokens that represent customer deposits on a 1:1 basis. In other words, the customers’ deposits can be tokenized using the new system. These tokenized deposits remain direct liabilities of the issuing banks, preserving regulatory protections, including certain insurance eligibility, while delivering stablecoin-like speed and programmability. All this can happen without moving funds outside the regulated banking system.
The system runs on Prividium, a private blockchain built by Matter Labs, ZKsync’s parent company, but it does not operate in isolation. Underneath it all sits Ethereum, one of the world’s most battle-tested public blockchains, which acts as the ultimate settlement layer. Think of Prividium as the private, members-only corridor where banks handle their transactions with full confidentiality and regulatory control. Ethereum acts as the reinforced concrete foundation that the corridor is built on, providing the security, transparency, and finality that no single bank or company can tamper with. Every transaction processed on the Cari Network ultimately settles against Ethereum. This gives the system the trust of a decentralized network while keeping the day-to-day operations within the regulated regime.
BitGo completes the picture, bringing over a decade of experience in safeguarding digital assets. In 2013, its security innovations gave major financial institutions enough confidence to take their first step into the crypto world. Together, the two firms are not just building another fintech product — they are laying the groundwork for how banks move money in the years ahead.
The five banks—Huntington Bank, First Horizon Bank, M&T Bank, KeyBank, and Old National Bank—are currently testing the system. Verified users can send these tokens to one another instantly and cash them out for U.S. dollars whenever needed, cutting out the waiting periods that have frustrated bank customers for decades.
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Banks Move First, Stablecoins Step Aside
What separates this initiative from other digital money projects is a deliberate decision to leave stablecoins out of the picture entirely. Instead of minting new digital money, it converts your existing bank deposit into a digital token—think of it like turning a paper check into an instant transfer that works at 2 a.m. on a Sunday and settles in seconds, not days. Your money never leaves the bank’s books, which means FDIC insurance stays intact, just as it would with any normal deposit.
The numbers behind this project are hard to ignore. Traditional financial systems hold somewhere in the region of $450 trillion in assets globally. A safe, compliant bridge that moves even a slice of that onto blockchain could quietly reshape how money flows around the world. Prividium keeps each bank’s sensitive data locked within its own internal systems, while still giving regulators the visibility they need, with Ethereum serving as the secure backbone underneath.
A wider rollout is penciled in for later this year. Industry groups see the model as a practical path for traditional banks to modernize.
