Bank Of Canada Completes CA$100M Tokenized Bond Pilot - But Warns Adoption Will Be Slow

The Bank of Canada has concluded Project Samara, a pilot program that successfully issued a CA$100 million tokenized bond on a permissioned Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. The experiment involved Export Development Canada as the issuer, with TD Bank and RBC Investor Services managing the bond lifecycle, including issuance, coupon payments, and secondary trading. By integrating bond and cash ledgers, the project achieved instant settlement and reduced counterparty risk, demonstrating clear operational efficiency gains. However, the central bank cautioned that widespread adoption remains unlikely in the near term due to significant integration hurdles and liquidity costs. The findings highlight a persistent gap between technical feasibility and the institutional inertia required for production-scale deployment. This pilot serves as a critical data point for the RWA market, illustrating that while blockchain infrastructure can streamline capital markets, regulatory and systemic barriers remain substantial. The Bank of Canada emphasized that this was a feasibility study rather than a policy commitment, reflecting a global trend of central banks testing DLT for wholesale financial infrastructure.