The European Central Bank has spent two years building settlement rails for tokenized markets. Now it plans to trade on them itself.
The ECB said on Monday it will invest part of its own funds in tokenized securities, settling the purchases through Pontes, the Eurosystem system that went live the same day. The central bank has not said how much it will invest or when the first purchase will take place.
The ECB announced on September 21, 2026, that it has launched preparatory work to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenized securities, in a release published alongside the launch of Pontes, which enables wholesale transactions in tokenized assets to be settled in central bank money.
What the ECB Plans to Buy
The ECB said initial investments will focus on euro-denominated securities issued by euro area central governments, regional governments, agencies, and European supranational institutions. Tokenized securities are bonds or other financial instruments issued or represented as digital tokens on a distributed ledger, a shared database maintained across multiple parties.
The investments will come from the ECB’s own funds portfolio, which the central bank describes as a non-monetary policy portfolio that generates income to help fund its operating expenses. The purchases are separate from the ECB’s monetary policy operations.
The ECB said the aim is to gain first-hand experience across the full investment lifecycle, including trade execution, settlement, systems, and portfolio management. Its Executive Board will determine the operational details and timing once preparatory work is complete, taking into account developments in tokenized issuance in Europe.
What Pontes Does
Pontes connects market platforms built on distributed ledger technology, or DLT, to TARGET Services, the Eurosystem’s existing infrastructure for settling payments and securities transactions in euros. That allows a tokenized asset traded on a DLT platform to be paid for in central bank money rather than commercial bank deposits or privately issued tokens.
The Eurosystem said Pontes will initially offer a core set of services, with enhanced features and longer operating hours introduced gradually, and full implementation is expected by 2028. It builds on tests the Eurosystem ran in 2024 using DLT for central bank money settlement, during which public and private participants said access to a risk-free settlement asset was crucial for wider adoption.
“Pontes brings the stability and trust of central bank money to the European tokenised finance ecosystem,” said Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB’s Executive Board.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said the Eurosystem is working toward a more integrated, innovative, and resilient European financial market and will continue to make progress in collaboration with the market.
Who Has Signed On
The Eurosystem said 13 market participants have completed onboarding and can use Pontes immediately: ABANCA, BayernLB, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Cecabank, Deutsche Bank, DekaBank, DZ Bank, the European Investment Bank, KfW, Memo Bank, NRW.BANK, Santander, and Société Générale. The Deutsche Bundesbank has also onboarded as a market participant.
Four DLT platform operators are connected at launch: Axiology, Cashlink, Clearstream and SWIAT. The Eurosystem said additional participants have committed to connecting in the coming months.
Pontes, Appia, and the Digital Euro
Pontes is the first initiative under the Eurosystem’s strategy for tokenized finance. A second track, Appia, announced in March 2026, involves experimentation and analysis by the Eurosystem, Danmarks Nationalbank, and public and private stakeholders, with a blueprint for a DLT-based European financial ecosystem due by 2028.
Both are wholesale projects, serving banks and market infrastructures. They are separate from the digital euro, the ECB’s proposed retail central bank digital currency for consumers, which requires EU legislation that has not yet been adopted.
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