BNY Mellon Sets Sights on 24/7 Tokenized Treasuries, Putting Ripple's $RLUSD in the After-Hours Hot Seat 🏦

BNY Mellon plans to build a round-the-clock settlement system for the U.S. Treasury market, with the bank confirming it has already executed after-hours Treasury transactions with stablecoin issuers earlier this year. The initiative, outlined in a client letter published on Wednesday, would allow continuous settlement of both conventional and tokenized Treasuries.

The bank is preparing to release tokenized U.S. Treasuries and begin pilot transactions on its private blockchain before the end of 2026. BNY Mellon has set a target of fully supporting "always-on" settlement of traditional and tokenized Treasuries in 2027, according to a Bloomberg report.

The development drew a direct reaction from Ripple's Senior Vice President of Stablecoins Jack McDonald, who wrote on X: "Congratulations to BNY on this milestone. Excited to be partnering together as $RLUSD helps support the evolution toward always-on Treasury markets and institutional digital asset infrastructure." The statement places Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin at the center of attention as institutional infrastructure moves toward continuous settlement.

The timing comes weeks after BNY Mellon was named the primary reserve custodian for Ripple USD (RLUSD). The arrangement positions the bank to handle the collateral backing RLUSD as the stablecoin is integrated into broader institutional use cases.

BNY Mellon's broader roadmap reflects growing convergence between traditional custody services and digital asset infrastructure. With tokenized Treasuries and stablecoin-based settlement moving from pilot programs to production timelines, the bank has signaled its intent to operate across both conventional market hours and the digital asset economy's continuous trading cycle.