2027 is the year BNY Mellon is aiming for to make round-the-clock settlement of U.S. Treasuries a reality, both conventional and tokenized. The world's largest custody bank has already run a live after-hours test involving stablecoin reserves, and the results were good enough to push the project forward.
The test transaction cleared after Fedwire Securities had already shut down secondary-market Treasury transfers for the day. Tradeweb handled the trade, and BNY settled it shortly after through existing cash rails. No tokenization was involved, but that was precisely the point: the test showed that Treasury activity tied to stablecoin reserves can keep moving after the main U.S. settlement window closes. Ripple's RLUSD participated directly; BNY's cash-management unit Dreyfus acted on behalf of OpenEden's USDO.
Both RLUSD and USDO hold short-dated government debt as reserve assets. The tokens trade around the clock, but the Treasuries backing them are locked into weekday settlement windows. That gap causes real friction: large creations, redemptions or collateral calls can sit unresolved over a weekend, delaying reserve adjustments by days.
BNY plans to start testing tokenized Treasuries on a private blockchain before the end of this year. In parallel, the bank will expand its existing settlement network to cover more of the Asian, European and U.S. trading sessions, according to a client letter reported by Bloomberg. BNY already serves as primary custodian for RLUSD's reserves and handles custody and investment management for OpenEden's tokenized Treasury fund. Back in January, the bank rolled out tokenized deposit balances, giving institutional clients an on-chain representation of commercial-bank money.
The weekend lag in Treasury settlement has been a known friction point for years. BNY is now the first major custodian to put a concrete timeline on closing it.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
