Quant CEO Floats Programmable Yen After U.S. Infrastructure Selection

Quant founder and CEO Gilbert Verdian raised the possibility of a programmable yen on Oct. 7, 13 days after Quant was selected to provide infrastructure for The Clearing House’s U.S. On-Chain Money Initiative.

Verdian posted “Programmable Yen next?” but did not announce a Japanese contract, customer, launch date, network design or transaction volume.

The Clearing House selected Quant on Sept. 24 after a competitive process. Quant will provide interoperability, orchestration and transaction-management technology for tokenized-deposit clearing and settlement.

Participating institutions are expected to gain access to the U.S. network during the first half of 2027. It will connect tokenized-deposit transactions with The Clearing House’s RTP and CHIPS payment networks, which support real-time and wholesale payments.

The initiative is designed to support immediate settlement, conditional payments, corporate treasury, liquidity management, cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement. The Clearing House operates U.S. payment networks that clear and settle more than $2 trillion per day across wire, ACH, check-image and real-time payments.

A tokenized deposit records a bank-held deposit in digital form while remaining subject to traditional deposit protections and regulatory oversight.

Sal Karakaplan, chief strategy officer of The Clearing House, said, “Building interbank infrastructure for tokenized deposits requires proven technology that can scale.”

Japan is already part of Quant’s commercial focus. Quant and Dentsu Soken entered a strategic partnership on Jan. 14 to support Japanese financial institutions’ adoption of programmable digital money and modernization of settlement infrastructure.

The collaboration includes programmable settlement, tokenized deposits, bank-issued stablecoin functions, treasury and liquidity automation, interoperability and Japan-focused payment tools. Dentsu Soken also brings StreamR, which is designed to work with BOJ-NET, Japan’s real-time gross-settlement system.

“Japan is at an important turning point in the evolution of its financial infrastructure,” Verdian said in January. “Partnering with Dentsu Soken lets us support Japan’s transition to digital assets and tokenised money with technology that is proven, compliant and designed for institutions.”

The Japan partnership is separate from the U.S. initiative. The U.S. network remains scheduled to become available to participating institutions in the first half of 2027.