AI · CryptoSlate
ECB rolls out ‘digital euro for banks’ and gears up to buy tokenized bonds
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The Eurosystem launched Pontes on Monday, giving banks a live route to settle tokenized assets in central-bank money.
Key facts
- The ECB’s own-funds holdings were worth €23.1 billion at the end of 2025, with government debt accounting for 73% of the portfolio
- The ECB plans a 12-month retail pilot beginning in the second half of 2027, involving 36 payment-service providers, merchants and central-bank staff
- An initial group including Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale and the European Investment Bank has completed onboarding, alongside DLT operators such as Clearstream, Axiology, Cashlink
- The system launches with a limited set of services and will add functionality and longer operating hours over time, with full implementation targeted for 2028
Summary
01 The Eurosystem launched Pontes, giving banks a live route to settle tokenized securities in central-bank money. 02 The ECB is also preparing to invest its own funds through the system, moving Europe’s tokenized-market push beyond infrastructure alone. 03 The next test is actual usage: transaction volumes, additional participants and the size and timing of the ECB’s first tokenized purchases. The European Central Bank (ECB) simultaneously began preparations to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenized securities, with those purchases set to settle through Pontes.