In a landmark move for the banking sector, the UK’s Monument Bank has tokenized £250 million in regulated customer deposits using the Midnight protocol, a privacy-focused sidechain on the Cardano blockchain. This marks the first instance of a Bank of England-supervised institution migrating live customer funds onto a privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure. The development coincides with Cardano’s technical roadmap advancing, including the nearing Van Rossem hard fork.
Regulatory Compliance Drives Platform Choice
The selection of Cardano’s Midnight network, which launched on March 29 with over 163,000 blocks already produced at inception, was driven by evolving regulatory frameworks. Regulations like MiCA and GDPR require financial institutions to keep customer transaction data off public ledgers. Midnight’s Selective-Disclosure model provides a solution, allowing regulators cryptographic access to transaction data without making it publicly visible. According to bank representatives at the Digital Asset Summit 2026, this specific capability is not currently offered by networks like Ethereum or Solana. The infrastructure is supported by nine finance and technology firms operating nodes, including Worldpay and Bullish.
Monument Bank’s rollout will occur in three phases. The tokenized deposits will continue to accrue interest, remain fully backed by pound sterling, and are protected by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Network Upgrades and Development Momentum
On the core protocol, Cardano is preparing for the Van Rossem upgrade. This hard fork to Protocol 11 will introduce new Plutus built-in functions—including array types, modular exponentiation, and multi-scalar multiplication—without disrupting existing smart contracts. The Cardano Node 10.7.0 release was announced as imminent in late March.
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Looking further ahead, the Ouroboros Leios upgrade is scheduled for late 2026, aiming to introduce parallel block processing at the base layer. Development activity remains robust, evidenced by 572 commits across 83 repositories on March 30 alone.
Market Performance Lags Technical Progress
Despite these advancements, ADA’s market price continues to face significant pressure. The token is trading near its 52-week low and has lost approximately one-third of its value since the start of the year. Short interest has recently reached its highest level since June 2023, creating a market environment where any upward price movement could potentially trigger a cascade of liquidations. Although large holders purchased over $53 million worth of ADA last week, the price remains below key technical resistance levels.
The coming months will determine whether the Monument Bank initiative attracts other regulated institutions, potentially bridging the current gap between Cardano’s developmental milestones and its market valuation. The launch of the Leios upgrade by the end of 2026 will serve as a critical test for this convergence.
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