CoinDesk Podcast Network Monument Bank Taps Privacy-Focused Midnight to Tokenize £250M in Retail Deposits
Mar 25, 2026
Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation, who led Midnight's privacy-forward mainnet launch. Mintoo Bhandari, Founder of Monument Bank, building regulated tokenized deposit products. They discuss tokenizing retail deposits on a privacy-first public chain. They cover programmable privacy, hiding blockchain complexity for customers, GDPR-friendly proofs, and phased rollout and banking-as-a-service plans.
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Tokenized Deposits Combine Bank Guarantees With On‑Chain Programmability
- Tokenized retail deposits let Monument pay interest with Bank of England guarantees while exposing a blockchain mirror for programmability.
- Monument will enable fractionalized access to assets like private equity by creating tokenized units tradable in a privacy-protected environment.
Programmable Privacy Lets Banks Expose Services Without Public Surveillance
- Midnight provides programmable privacy so Monument clients can access tokenized assets without exposing wallet activity to others.
- Monument retains necessary disclosure for regulation while Midnight shields client activity at the network layer.
Release Tokenized Banking Features In Phased Stages
- Roll out blockchain banking features in stages: tokenize deposits first, then whitelist RWAs and enable lending/borrowing.
- Fahmi recommends a slow, responsible mainnet rollout with phased feature unlocks over months.