Tradeweb Markets has used blockchain technology for the first fully electronic auction for brokered certificates of deposit to help these traditional assets move onchain, and potentially provide another source of yield in decentralized finance.

The retail arm of the operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets has capabilities including providing white label software for wealth management advisors and providing fixed income trading capabilities for US brokerages. John Cahalane, head of Tradeweb Retail, told Markets Media that he also manages an ATS (alternate trading system) with about 250 participants across wealth managers. banks, brokers and the buy side.

There are between 25,000 to 30,000 trades per day, although the trade sizes are small, according to Cahalane. He added: “We are 80% of the trades in the market, but probably less than 20% of the volume.”

In November 2025 Tradeweb said the retail platform facilitated over $5.35bn in average daily trading volume and averaged more than 260,000 unique securities on the platform.

Tradeweb’s business development group introduced Cahalane to Manish Dutta, co-founder and chief executive of Alphaledger, which said it was the first firm to bring municipal debt to blockchain. Cahalane said: “I started to think about which markets in the retail space might have a lower barrier to entry than munis in terms of automating workflows.”

He explained there are about 4,000 banks in the United States ranging from JP Morgan Chase to small community banks. Only one quarter of U.S. banks currently issue brokered CDs according to Tradeweb, highlighting the opportunity to expand participation, improve transparency and increase efficiency. A brokered certificate of deposit is a type of CD issued by a bank or thrift institution to be bought in bulk by a brokerage firm and resold to brokerage customers.

The brokered certificate of deposit market has less than 20 underwriters who create products, and smaller banks can only contact them manually by phone and email. Tradeweb made this process more efficient by using some of the technology Alphaledger had developed for onchain municipal bonds and partnering with InspereX, the tech-driven distributor of fixed income, structured products, ETFs and alternative investments.

Chris Bruner, chief product officer at Tradeweb, told Markets Media that going straight to blockchain has a lot of benefits. He said: “We are leapfrogging to the latest technology, not just upgrading technology we have had for 30 years.”

Dutta said in a statement that each auction event is recorded as an instantaneous, immutable and cryptographically verified entry. He added: “Our digital infrastructure removes the need for manual reconciliation and reduces reliance on third-party verification.”

Last December Tradeweb said in a statement that it had completed the first fully electronic auction for brokered certificates of deposit. The inaugural transaction was executed onchain using Alphaledger’s technology on Tradeweb’s retail platform between Gateway First Bank and InspereX.

Jonathan Wallace, chief financial officer at Gateway First Bank, said in a statement that blockchain is a tool that can foster a more connected and transparent ecosystem, benefiting both issuers and investors. Cahalane highlighted that opening up the market on blockchain also gives banks the potential to attract deposits from more investors, including those outside the U.S.

“We found someone who was interested in planting the flag, and the transaction was negotiated completely on a digital basis,” Cahalane added. “The system worked seamlessly and the transaction was printed for $5m.”

Gateway First Bank returned to the market for a larger deal in 2026 using the same digital process.

Bruner highlighted that much activity in decentralized finance (DeFi) is based around yield so brokered certificates of deposit could provide another choice alongside stablecoins, tokens and money market funds.

Although the transactions have been executed onchain, they were simultaneously settled through the traditional route via the DTCC, the U.S. post-trade infrastructure. Bruner said the ultimate aim is to have the whole process onchain.

The U.S. administration is trying to pass the Clarity Act, which will provide a federal framework for digital asset market structure, and there has been controversy over whether stablecoins should be allowed to pay yield.

“The regional banks are a super-important constituency that could get left out in this whole equation,” said Bruner. “The ability for Tradeweb and InspereX to help equip them to have a more vibrant brokered CD marketplace is really interesting.”

Collateral

If brokered certificates of deposit are tokenized, they could be used as collateral alongside other digital assets. Tokenizing securities would potentially allow collateral to move 24/7 around the globe, improving liquidity, operational efficiency and market transparency. More collateral mobility leads to increased capital efficiency for the balance sheets of financial institutions, and would free up funds for lending and trading.

In order to help the industry improve collateral mobility, the DTCC is aiming to tokenize assets it holds in custody on the Canton Network, Digital Assets’ blockchain for financial institutions which has built-in privacy controls. Bruner said: “This dual path is a strong path to adoption as it offers a distribution channel for legacy assets into the DeFI world.”

Tradeweb is working on a number of initiatives with DTCC and the Canton Network, including using tokenized Treasuries and tokenized money market funds as collateral.

For example in August 2025, Tradeweb was part of the working group of financial institutions that completed the first real-time, fully onchain financing of U.S. Treasuries against the USDC stablecoin.

The stablecoin was the cash leg of the transaction and onchain US Treasuries were used as collateral, providing 24/7 liquidity. The transaction was executed on Tradeweb and enabled near-instant, atomic settlement on a public blockchain during a weekend.

Justin Peterson, chief technology officer at Tradeweb, said in a statement: “Tradeweb’s deep U.S. Treasury liquidity and electronic execution capabilities, combined with the Canton Network’s interoperable and decentralized framework, enabled this trade to happen outside of traditional settlement windows.”

Growth

Cahalane said the retail business has been working on growing an institutional municipal bond business for the last five to seven years, and the largest asset managers are now using our liquidity and tools on an all-to-all or bilateral basis.

“Munis is a fragmented marketplace with lots of issuers, but there is no reason they could not be tokenized and put onchain,” he added.

In addition, he said it is possible that other products on the retail platform such as structured products could eventually move onchain.

Billy Hult, chief executive of Tradeweb, said in his annual client letter: “Tokenization and AI-enabled tools are changing how liquidity forms and how risk is transferred.”

Hult argued that Tradeweb’s reach across rates, credit, ETFs, and money markets puts the firm at the center of the “historic” convergence between traditional and decentralized finance.

He believes there is no doubt that markets are headed toward 24/7 trading, broader adoption of tokenized settlement and digital workflows.

“Market structure is moving toward a model where traditional and digital workflows run in parallel and connect through shared data, collateral, and execution layers,” he added. “We intend for Tradeweb to be the leader in enabling those layers to fold together.”