The European Central Bank (ECB) has outlined why it sees a role for central bank money in blockchain-based finance. Speaking on October 1 at the “The Future of Money” conference honoring economist Charles Goodhart at the Bank of England in London, ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel delivered an address titled “Central banks on-chain,” arguing that tokenization is reshaping financial settlement and that central bank money should be available on distributed-ledger technology (DLT) platforms.
Her argument centers on the potential settlement benefits of tokenization. Schnabel said tokenization allows for “faster, safer, and smarter” settlement, highlighting two features: programmability, where settlement can be made conditional on rules executed automatically, and atomicity, where the legs of a transaction settle together or not at all. Her broader argument is that central bank money needs to remain available as a settlement asset as financial markets adopt tokenized infrastructure.
Preserving the “Anchor Role” on New Rails
Schnabel’s central claim is that the two-tier monetary system — central bank money at the base, commercial bank money built on top — can also operate in a tokenized financial system if central bank money is made available on-chain. In her presentation, the ECB’s objective is to preserve the “anchor role” of central bank money while allowing private settlement assets such as tokenized deposits and stablecoins to operate alongside it.
This is the conceptual backbone beneath a project the Eurosystem has already launched. As The Crypto Times reported, the ECB brought its Pontes platform live on September 21, with Pontes enabling wholesale transactions in tokenized assets to settle in central bank money. The system connects market DLT platforms with Eurosystem infrastructure and initially offers a dual settlement model involving TARGET Services and DLT-based settlement.
The ECB says Pontes will initially provide a core set of services, with enhancements and longer operating hours introduced gradually. The central bank has said full implementation is expected by 2028. Schnabel’s presentation identifies planned enhancements including 24/7 availability and decentralized programmability.
Looking further out, she described a second, more exploratory track — the Appia initiative — which is examining different architectures for a tokenized financial ecosystem, including a single unified ledger, interconnected networks and multiple shared ledgers. The Eurosystem plans to develop a blueprint for the broader ecosystem by 2028.
Together, Pontes and Appia represent two parts of the Eurosystem’s strategy: Pontes provides infrastructure for central bank money settlement in tokenized markets, while Appia takes a longer-term look at how a broader tokenized financial ecosystem could be designed.
Private Money Is Already Moving
Schnabel’s address focused primarily on the role of central bank money and the infrastructure needed for tokenized markets. But the broader policy debate also includes private settlement assets. The ECB has previously said tokenized deposits and euro-denominated stablecoins can have a role alongside central bank money, while arguing that central bank money can provide a common settlement anchor.
Euro-denominated stablecoins are also developing under the EU’s regulatory framework, including the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime. The Crypto Times reported last year in November that MiCA-authorized stablecoin issuers had already grown to 17. That figure is from 2025 and should not be presented as a current count without an updated source.
The ECB has separately argued that, without a common central bank settlement asset, tokenized markets could rely more heavily on private or foreign-currency settlement assets. ECB President Christine Lagarde has also said that private settlement assets, including tokenized deposits and euro-denominated stablecoins issued in Europe, would have a role in a tokenized financial ecosystem.
The private sector, meanwhile, is pushing back on the rules meant to govern it. Just as Schnabel spoke, Circle was urging the EU to rework MiCA’s stablecoin reserve requirements — a reminder that public and private forms of digital money are developing alongside each other, while policymakers continue to determine how they should interact. Schnabel’s framing also places central bank money, tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and other digital assets within a broader spectrum of settlement and investment assets rather than presenting them as interchangeable instruments.
Why It Matters
For the digital-asset industry, an ECB Executive Board member setting out a case for central bank money to be available on DLT infrastructure highlights the extent to which tokenized settlement has entered the central bank’s policy discussion. The technologies associated with tokenization, including programmability and atomic settlement, are being considered by the Eurosystem as part of future financial-market infrastructure.
For tokenized-asset markets, Pontes is designed to provide access to central bank money for the settlement of DLT-based wholesale transactions. For stablecoin and tokenized-deposit issuers, the ECB’s framework indicates that private settlement assets are expected to coexist with central bank money, rather than replace it entirely.
What Schnabel did not do in the October 1 presentation was announce a launch date for a retail digital euro or suggest that stablecoins would disappear from the financial system. Her presentation instead focused on how central bank money could be incorporated into tokenized financial markets through initiatives such as Pontes and Appia.
The retail digital euro remains a separate project from Pontes and Appia, while the broader balance between public and private digital settlement assets remains under development. The Crypto Times makes no forecast on the digital euro’s timeline or on how the public-private balance resolves.
Also Read: Aave Urges EU to Rethink MiCA Rules for DeFi and Stablecoins
