Five major regional banks in the United States are teaming up to launch Cari Network—a new payments platform designed to rival stablecoins in terms of speed and programmability. By leveraging the Prividium infrastructure from ZKsync, Cari Network introduces tokenized deposits that ensure customer funds remain within the regulated banking system. The project aims to bridge the gap between conventional banks and rapidly growing digital assets, promising efficiency without sacrificing security or regulatory oversight.
Consortium Structure and Strategic Goals
The founding banks of this initiative are Huntington Bancshares, M&T Bank, KeyCorp, First Horizon, and Old National Bank, representing a combined asset size of roughly $780 billion. As leading players in the regional U.S. banking sector, they are at the forefront of technological innovation in traditional finance. Overseeing the project is Gene Ludwig, a former senior official at the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Ludwig emphasizes that the primary goal is to reinforce the stability and strength of the country’s regulated banking system. The banks share concerns that the growth of stablecoin-based payments and transactions could erode traditional deposit bases and limit their capacity to extend credit.
Technical Foundation and Security Advantages
A key differentiator for Cari Network lies in the nature of its tokens: unlike most stablecoins, Cari tokens directly represent deposit liabilities on the issuing banks’ balance sheets. This ensures that customers’ funds remain with the banks, are covered by FDIC insurance, and continue to support established credit mechanisms. By contrast, existing stablecoins are typically liabilities of non-banking issuers, often kept outside the regulated deposit system and without access to deposit insurance. Through Cari tokens, users retain their status as bank customers both legally and from a regulatory perspective.
Highlighting the central role of insured deposits in economic activity, Gene Ludwig points out that Cari Network offers a path to digitalization for banks without undermining their core credit and financing functions.
The technological underpinning for Cari Network comes from Prividium, a permissioned and privacy-focused blockchain solution developed by Matter Labs and integrated with Ethereum via ZKsync. Prividium’s privacy features are particularly critical for banks, addressing regulatory and confidentiality requirements in handling customer data and transaction flows.
Collaborative Approach and Competitive Dynamics
What sets Cari Network apart is its shared token model. Rather than each bank minting separate digital tokens, the five banks collaborate to issue a unified Cari token, enabling instant, seamless transfers between customers of different participating banks. This interoperability directly tackles one of the sector’s long-standing issues: fragmentation in digital bank-issued assets.
The first product rollout, offering a limited set of core features, is scheduled to launch this month. A targeted pilot is planned for the third quarter of 2026, with commercial deployment aiming for the fourth quarter. This timeline reflects the urgency for banks to respond to the surging stablecoin market by introducing their own digital solutions to stay competitive.
The week Cari Network was unveiled also saw notable developments elsewhere in the industry, including PayPal expanding its PYUSD stablecoin to 70 countries and Mastercard reaching a $1.8 billion agreement to acquire digital asset infrastructure provider BVNK. Meanwhile, Circle continued to see growth with its USDC stablecoin. Collectively, these moves highlight the rapid pace of digital adoption across the banking sector.
Whether tokenized deposit products like those offered by Cari Network can ultimately deliver user-friendly experiences, high transaction speeds, and regulatory assurance remains a decisive question for the sector’s future.
