Uber tests weekend cash access using tokenized money market funds

Overview

Updated 1 hour ago

Uber bought shares in a Franklin Templeton money market fund on a Thursday using HSBC tokenized deposits. On Sunday, with banks and markets closed, it sold part of the position and the cash settled. The trade and the payment moved together on the Canton Network, a blockchain built for private institutional transactions.

The pilot, run with Tradeweb and Fireblocks, tested a specific gap in corporate treasury. Cash invested in short-term funds earns more than cash sitting in a bank account, but getting it back takes days. Uber's treasury team says the structure let it keep earning yield until the moment it needed to pay. The system is a pilot, not a live service.

Why it matters

Companies hold billions in idle cash because markets close. If this scales, that cash earns yield until the moment it is paid out.

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Key Indicators

1.5 days

Extra yield captured

Additional yield Uber earned by selling on Sunday instead of at the traditional Friday cutoff, per reporting on the pilot.

Firms in the pilot

Uber, HSBC, Franklin Templeton, Tradeweb and Fireblocks.

T+1

Traditional fund settlement

Money market fund redemptions normally settle in a day or more, and only during banking hours.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

People Involved

Odette Rodrigues

Vice president of corporate finance, treasury and capital markets, Uber

Pilot client; no production commitment announced

Manish Kohli

Global head of payments, HSBC

Says the capability is available to other U.S. customers

Organizations Involved

Uber Technologies

Corporate treasury client

Pilot client; has not announced production use

Ride-hailing and delivery company whose treasury ran the buy and weekend redemption.

HSBC

Bank

Issued the tokenized deposits used in the pilot

Bank whose tokenized deposits represented commercial bank money in the transactions.

Franklin Templeton

Asset manager

Supplied the tokenized money market fund

Asset manager whose tokenized money market fund held the invested cash.

Tradeweb Markets

Electronic trading venue

Provided the trading workflow

Trading platform that coordinated execution and on-chain settlement.

Fireblocks

Digital asset infrastructure

Provided wallet and signing technology

Wallet infrastructure that controlled asset movement and signing rules.

Canton Network

Blockchain network

Settlement venue for the pilot

Privacy-focused blockchain where the trades and payments settled together.

Timeline

October 2026 November 2026

3 events Latest: Yesterday

November 2026
Uber redeems fund shares on a Sunday
Latest Transaction

Uber liquidated part of its holdings over the weekend while the balance kept earning yield, with settlement completing outside market hours.
Yesterday
October 2026
Participants announce completed pilot
Announcement

HSBC, Franklin Templeton, Tradeweb, Fireblocks and Uber said the 24/7 liquidity and settlement test had succeeded.
3 days ago
Uber buys fund shares with tokenized deposits
Transaction

Uber used HSBC tokenized deposits to buy Franklin Templeton tokenized money market fund shares through Tradeweb, settling on Canton.
4 days ago

Scenarios

HSBC signs a second U.S. corporate client for tokenized deposit settlement

Likely Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: HSBC payments head Manish Kohli, per reporting on the pilot

Kohli said the capability is available to other U.S. customers. If a second named corporate client runs a similar workflow, the pilot becomes a product line rather than a demonstration. The trigger is an announcement naming the client and the workflow.

Uber discloses routine tokenized-fund treasury use in an SEC filing

Possible Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Treasury trade press covering the pilot

A pilot becomes operations when it shows up in a company's own financial reporting. Uber would need to describe tokenized fund holdings as part of its treasury in a quarterly or annual filing. No such disclosure exists yet.

Pilot stays a one-off as no participant announces production rollout

Possible Resolves by Nov 1, 2027

Discussed by: Blockchain News Group, which noted the system remains a pilot rather than a service

The test proved the participants could connect purchases, redemptions and coordinated settlement outside market hours. Dependable routine access is a different problem. If a year passes with no production announcement, the pilot reads as a capability demonstration.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1971

The first money market fund (1971)

Bruce Bent and Henry Brown launched the Reserve Fund, letting small investors earn short-term interest rates on cash that had previously sat in non-interest-bearing accounts. It turned cash into an investable asset with same-day access.

Then

Money market funds grew quickly as a substitute for bank deposits.

Now

Cash management became a discipline of squeezing yield out of balances that still had to be available on demand.

Why this matters now

The Uber pilot applies the same tradeoff to the hours when banks and funds are closed. The question is whether yield can continue past the Friday cutoff.

September 2002

CLS Bank begins continuous linked settlement (2002)

A group of major banks launched CLS Bank International to settle both legs of a foreign exchange trade at the same moment, replacing a system where one side could pay and the other fail. It was built to eliminate Herstatt risk.

Then

Adoption was gradual, with banks connecting through a new account structure.

Now

Payment-versus-payment settlement became standard for large FX trades.

Why this matters now

Atomic delivery-versus-payment on Canton is the same idea applied to tokenized cash and fund shares: both legs move together or not at all.

May 2024

U.S. equities move to T+1 settlement (2024)

The U.S. securities industry cut the standard settlement cycle for stocks and corporate bonds from two business days to one, compressing the window in which a trade is agreed but not final.

Then

Firms rebuilt back-office systems and funding processes to handle the shorter cycle.

Now

The change reduced margin posted at clearinghouses and set expectations for further compression.

Why this matters now

The pilot pushes the same compression past the end of the business day, where the constraint is no longer hours but whether the market is open at all.