Cari Network, a permissioned blockchain network led by former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Gene Ludwig, has selected Matter Labs’ Prividium infrastructure to power a bank-governed tokenized deposit system for U.S. regional and mid-sized lenders.
The platform, built on ZKsync and anchored to Ethereum, allows participating banks to issue and transfer tokenized deposits 24/7 while maintaining them as balance sheet liabilities. This initiative responds to growing regulatory scrutiny and competition from stablecoin issuers encroaching on traditional banking functions.
Five major banks-Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon, M&T Bank, KeyCorp, and Old National Bancorp-have been testing the system since February. The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America supports the model, emphasizing the importance of keeping deposits within regulated institutions to sustain small business lending and local economies.
Cari’s tokens represent existing customer deposits and operate within a permissioned environment governed by bank risk and compliance protocols, distinct from decentralized finance (DeFi).
Prividium provides instant settlement between verified banks while isolating transaction data from personally identifiable information, which remains in each bank’s core systems. The architecture was designed to meet U.S. banking privacy standards, including examiner access and tamper-evident audit trails.
ZKsync CEO Alex Gluchowski stated the platform is tailored for institutional adoption, aligning with its 2026 roadmap focused on privacy, deterministic control, and interoperability-key requirements for banks and governments.