Bank of Canada tokenized bonds implemented, 100 million CAD trial for integrated issuance and settlement

The Bank of Canada recently announced the completion of a fintech experiment called “Project Samara,” successfully issuing a $100 million CAD tokenized bond, issued by Export Development Canada (EDC), with a maturity of less than three months. The core breakthrough of this experiment is that bond issuance, bidding, secondary market trading, and fund settlement were all completed on a single distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform—allowing bond tokens and settlement funds to flow simultaneously.

Project Samara Architecture: Technology Selection and Participating Institutions

Led by the Bank of Canada, Project Samara involved full participation from major Canadian financial institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), RBC Dominion Securities, RBC Investor Services Trust, and TD Securities, a subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank. RBC was responsible for building and operating the entire DLT financial market platform, which is based on Hyperledger Fabric technology.

This platform supports the full lifecycle management of bonds—from issuance to maturity: participating institutions can submit bids, complete allocations, conduct secondary market trades, and handle interest payments and redemptions—all within the same system. Compared to traditional markets that rely on multiple separate systems and intermediaries, the DLT platform significantly reduces the risk of information synchronization errors.

Core Innovation: Wholesale Digital CAD and Atomic Settlement

The most innovative aspect of Project Samara is replacing commercial bank deposits with “wholesale digital Canadian dollars” (tokenized wholesale CAD) as the settlement medium. This digital currency, created directly by the Bank of Canada, flows within the same ledger system as the tokenized bonds, enabling atomic settlement of transactions and fund transfers—both parties complete the exchange simultaneously, rather than the traditional step-by-step process of “trade occurs → funds settle later.”

This design offers key improvements including:

• Significantly shorter settlement times: Traditional bond markets typically require T+2 to T+3 business days for settlement; the DLT system can approach real-time settlement.
• Reduced counterparty risk: Atomic settlement eliminates the risk of “failed delivery” where one party has delivered but the other has not.
• Enhanced transparency: A unified ledger allows all participants to track transaction records instantly, reducing information asymmetry.
• Automated processes: Smart contracts can automatically execute routine operations such as interest payments and redemptions, reducing manual intervention.

The research team also noted that full commercialization still faces challenges such as regulatory framework adjustments, integration with existing systems, and market governance mechanisms. They believe the most feasible future approach is to develop a “hybrid model” that connects traditional financial infrastructure with DLT systems, rather than a complete, immediate replacement.

Global Context: Accelerating International Progress in Tokenized Bonds

Canada’s Project Samara completion coincides with a global trend of major financial centers accelerating their exploration of asset tokenization. Since 2018, several significant precedents have been established: the World Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia issued a $110 million AUD bond called “Bond-i”—considered the world’s first blockchain-managed bond; the Monetary Authority of Singapore launched “Project Guardian” in 2022; Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority has been expanding tokenized green bond issuances from 2023 to 2025; and the Swiss National Bank supported a digital bond experiment settled with wholesale CBDC in 2024.

Canada’s domestic regulatory progress is also noteworthy: the 2025 federal budget plans to promote legislation related to CAD stablecoins, led by the Bank of Canada’s regulatory framework; the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has introduced a digital asset custody regulation framework requiring trading platforms to strengthen asset custody standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the fundamental differences between Project Samara’s tokenized bonds and traditional bonds?
Traditional bonds are recorded in centralized registries and cleared through multiple intermediaries, typically requiring T+2 to T+3 business days for settlement. Project Samara’s tokenized bonds operate as digital tokens on a DLT platform, with transactions and fund settlements completed instantly and atomically within the same ledger, eliminating intermediary layers and settlement delays.

Q: Why did the Bank of Canada choose “wholesale digital CAD” instead of settlement via commercial bank deposits?
Using commercial bank deposits for settlement still depends on existing interbank clearing systems and cannot achieve true real-time, synchronized settlement with tokenized bonds. The wholesale digital CAD, created directly by the Bank of Canada and flowing within the DLT platform alongside bond tokens, enables atomic settlement and fundamentally eliminates settlement time lag and counterparty risk. This is the core technological innovation of Project Samara.

Q: Will tokenized bonds soon see large-scale commercial application in Canada?
Currently, it remains in the exploration and testing phase. The conclusions of Project Samara confirm the technical feasibility, but full commercialization still faces challenges such as regulatory adjustments, integration with existing financial systems, and market governance. Experts believe the most practical path forward is to develop a hybrid connection between traditional systems and DLT architectures, rather than a one-time, complete replacement.