Midnight has upgraded its blockchain's custody capabilities just as Monument Bank approaches its targeted November rollout of tokenized deposits. The network's November 6 Ledger 9 release adds institutional signature compatibility and cross-contract functionality, though Monument has not confirmed that customers can yet access its planned service.

According to Midnight's upgrade announcement, Ledger 9 accepts ECDSA signatures, a signature scheme used widely across the institutional custody industry. The release also supports BIP-44 wallet derivation — a long-standing standard for generating many distinct deposit addresses from a single wallet seed, a workflow institutions commonly use to segregate client funds — and coordinated operations across smart contracts. Signature support carries weight here because custody providers typically build their key-management and signing infrastructure around particular schemes, making scheme compatibility a practical prerequisite for any integration. Taken together, these changes expand the range of potential integration options available to regulated institutions. Midnight did not identify Monument as a participating bank in the upgrade announcement.

Monument's Deposit Plan Remains Unlaunched

Monument and the Midnight Foundation announced their partnership on March 25, and Blockonomi covered the initial plan at the time: a program targeting up to £250 million in tokenized retail deposits. Under the proposal, each digital token would represent a corresponding pound-denominated bank deposit rather than an independent cryptocurrency.

Monument said balances held in this form would continue earning interest and remain redeemable in sterling. Customers would not need to purchase or manage digital assets themselves, since the bank intends to deliver the service through its existing regulated offering.

Deposit protection also carries defined limits. Eligible UK deposits receive FSCS protection of up to £120,000 per person, per authorized firm. That safeguard applies to qualifying deposits only; it does not extend to unlimited token holdings or investment returns.

Custody Obstacles Put November Target in Focus

In September, Monument founder Mintoo Bhandari told CoinDesk that the rollout had fallen behind schedule. He cited difficulties identifying a custodian able to satisfy both regulatory requirements and the privacy-technology needs of the project. Bhandari said Monument had identified a Canadian custody provider and anticipated a November launch, although the bank did not announce a specific launch date in that interview.

The custodian remains unnamed, and no completed customer rollout has emerged from the official sources reviewed. Against that backdrop, Ledger 9 broadens custodian compatibility — but Monument has not publicly linked the upgrade to its own implementation timetable. The open items to watch are whether Monument names its custody provider, confirms how its rollout would use the upgraded network, and publishes a firm launch date.

Privacy Features Face a Practical Banking Test

Midnight uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify transactions without exposing all of the underlying data. Monument said its planned configuration would shield customer transaction information from public view.

Midnight opened permissionless smart-contract deployment on September 28. Its October roadmap subsequently listed shielded token contracts and tokenized-deposit templates among fourth-quarter targets, with additional disclosure features — including regulator viewing keys — scheduled for early 2027. Viewing keys are the selective-disclosure mechanism through which shielded systems can grant auditors or supervisors read-only access to transaction data without publishing it openly — the kind of compliance capability a supervised institution would typically need before handling shielded customer flows. Those items are development goals on a published roadmap and should not be mistaken for deployed banking features.

A social post from the account Stake with Pride describes the network's private sovereign zones:

Midnight has private sovereign permissionless zones. This provides institution-grade selective disclosure to builders, individuals, and banks. Monument Bank will tokenize bank deposits on Midnight sovereign zones. midnight-3:native

— Stake with Pride Midnight + Cardano (@StakeWithPride), on X, November 11, 2026

The reviewed primary sources do not verify that terminology as Monument's product architecture, however.

The proposed deposit tokens are distinct from NIGHT, Midnight's network utility token. No verified announcement establishes that Monument's project would change NIGHT demand or pricing. Monument separately envisions tokenized investments and asset-backed lending through its app.