Northern Trust Builds Tokenised Custody Capabilities on Canton Network

Northern Trust says it has entered into an agreement with Digital Asset to support the development of custody capabilities for tokenised financial assets on the Canton Network, a public blockchain designed for regulated financial market participants, with a focus on privacy, compliance, and interoperability.

The Canton network is being utilised by financial institutions and market utilities to support tokenised assets and on‑chain financial workflows within regulated environments. The bank says as part of this agreement, it will integrate with Canton Network’s infrastructure to develop and deploy applications that bridge digital and traditional markets, supporting institutional grade custody and asset servicing workflows for network participants.

It adds that the move also creates opportunities with other regulated partners and financial services utilities that provide services for digitally issued assets. Northern Trust says it will utilise its digital assets platform to support custody and asset servicing for tokenised assets issued or transacted on the network.

“As institutional adoption of digital assets progresses, clients are looking for custody and servicing models that align with established market standards and regulatory expectations,” says Guy Gibson, co‑president, Asset Servicing and head of Institutional Banking and Markets at Northern Trust. “Connecting to the Canton Network allows us to extend our asset servicing role into new market structures while maintaining the same principles of scale, control, and risk management that clients expect from Northern Trust.”

Justin Chapman, group head of strategic partnerships, Digital and Financial Markets at Northern Trust, adds, “The connection of Northern Trust’s digital platform to the Canton Network supports our ongoing efforts to enable the digital asset lifecycle – from asset creation and trading through custody and reporting—using blockchain technology. Our platform is designed to integrate with our core asset servicing infrastructure to support digital and traditional assets side by side. Leveraging these capabilities and building a custody application on the Canton Network, will allow us to apply our blockchain‑agnostic, asset‑agnostic approach as markets continue to evolve.”

Meanwhile, Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset says, “As more real-world assets move on-chain, custodians play a critical role in enabling adoption within regulated markets. This integration with Northern Trust underscores how traditional asset servicing models can seamlessly extend into digital market infrastructure, while maintaining the controls institutions require.”