ECB launches ‘digital euro for banks’ and prepares to buy tokenized bonds

The Eurosystem launched Pontes on Monday, giving banks a live route to settle tokenized assets in central-bank money.

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. The move puts the ECB on both sides of Europe’s emerging tokenized-market infrastructure, providing the settlement rail while preparing to invest through it.

Pontes connects distributed-ledger market platforms with the Eurosystem’s existing TARGET settlement services, allowing tokenized securities transactions to complete using central-bank money. 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 and SWIAT. More institutions are expected to connect over the coming months.

André Dragosch, Bitwise Europe Head of Research, described the system as effectively the “digital euro made available for banks,” allowing financial institutions to settle tokenized transactions with each other while retaining central-bank money as the settlement asset.

That characterization reflects the role Pontes could play in wholesale markets, where access to risk-free settlement money has been one obstacle to moving securities onto distributed ledgers. The Eurosystem’s 2024 DLT trials found that public- and private-sector participants viewed such access as critical to wider adoption.

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. The ECB has yet to identify a completed live settlement since Monday’s launch, leaving transaction activity as the next measure of whether the infrastructure gains traction beyond institutions that have already connected.

ECB prepares to become a buyer on its new settlement rail

The ECB’s planned investment program moves the project beyond providing infrastructure by giving the central bank direct exposure to the transaction lifecycle it is asking financial institutions to adopt.

Initial purchases will focus on euro-denominated tokenized securities issued by euro-area central governments, regional governments, agencies and European supranational institutions. The ECB said using Pontes will give it experience spanning trade execution, settlement, technology systems and portfolio management.

The allocation could initially be small relative to the central bank’s portfolio. 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 central bank has not disclosed the size of the tokenized allocation or when purchases will begin, leaving its Executive Board to determine both after preparatory work is completed.

Those own funds are managed separately from monetary-policy portfolios and generate income that helps finance the ECB’s operating expenses. Their use gives the central bank a way to test tokenized markets without turning the purchases into an interest-rate or quantitative-easing instrument.

Pontes also arrives well ahead of Europe’s consumer-facing digital euro. 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. The ECB targets a potential first issuance in 2029, subject to adoption of the necessary legislation.

The two projects nevertheless show Europe pushing central-bank money deeper into digital infrastructure on separate tracks.

Dragosch pointed to earlier discussions over whether public blockchains could eventually play a role in the digital euro. The Financial Times reported in 2025 that European officials were considering networks including Ethereum and Solana among possible technological options as concerns grew over the expansion of dollar-backed stablecoins. The ECB said at the time it was examining centralized and decentralized technologies and had made no final decision.

For wholesale markets, Pontes provides a route today without waiting for that retail architecture to be resolved. Banks and securities platforms can begin connecting tokenized issuance and trading infrastructure to central-bank settlement while the Eurosystem expands Pontes and develops Appia, a broader initiative intended to produce a blueprint for an integrated European DLT financial ecosystem by 2028.

The commercial test now moves to transaction volume. Institutions already onboarded must decide which tokenized securities and workflows to route through Pontes, while additional banks and market operators weigh connections over the coming months.

The ECB’s eventual allocation will provide another signal: the size, timing and type of its first purchases will show how quickly Europe’s new settlement rail progresses from available infrastructure to a regularly used market.

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