BNY Mellon Bets on Blockchain for 24/7, Immutable Financial Infrastructure
BNY mellon is actively pursuing blockchain technology to revolutionize its operations, envisioning a future of continuous, always-on financial recordkeeping. According to BNY Mellon’s Head of Digital Asset and Data Solutions,Caroline Weinberg,the current financial system operates on a fundamentally different model – one that “goes to bed at night” with batch processing – while blockchain offers the potential for 24/7 operation.
As a major asset management bank responsible for the daily custody of trillions of dollars in payments and securities, BNY Mellon sees significant benefits in applying blockchain to its core functions. Weinberg highlighted the bank’s role as the largest collateral manager and a significant player in security lending,suggesting blockchain could deliver “faster,better,more efficient systems” for clients demanding quicker transaction speeds.
The foundation of this transformation lies in distributed ledger technology (DLT), which allows for secure and synchronized recording of digital asset transfers across a network without a central authority. New transactions are added immutably and are visible to all participants in near real-time. Weinberg emphasized that DLT is “the core of what we’re talking about,” with an “always-on programmable blockchain” serving as the central repository for data and transactions.
BNY Mellon is exploring specific applications of DLT, including the issuance of stablecoins – a move already being adopted by some banks – and the “tokenization” of assets. Tokenization involves creating unique digital representations of a bank’s holdings on the blockchain,essentially a modernized form of data input.
Weinberg, who studied applied math at Harvard University and took a cryptography course, noted the evolution of blockchain from a niche field to a mainstream topic, largely driven by the rise of cryptocurrency. She clarified that holding cryptocurrency isn’t about possessing the digital currency itself, but rather storing the digital keys that unlock access to it.
BNY Mellon is demonstrating its commitment to this technology with concrete steps.In July 2025, the bank took over custody of Ripple‘s stablecoin reserves and recently reported significant growth in its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
Looking ahead, Weinberg anticipates a powerful synergy between AI and blockchain, particularly through smart contracts. She predicts that within five years, AI will enable “programmable optimizations, customizations and the ability to really drive new use cases” within the blockchain framework, leading to a more dynamic and innovative financial landscape.