ECB Launches Pontes System for Tokenized Securities Settlement

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched its new infrastructure for settling tokenized securities in central bank money, known as Pontes. The system went live on September 21 with four DLT operators connected to it, including Axiology, which uses an XRPL-linked platform.

Axiology's infrastructure operates independently from both Ripple and the public XRP Ledger, using a private, permissioned blockchain built using open-source code of the XRP Ledger. This means that tokenized European securities are not settling in XRP itself, but rather through Pontes, which connects participating DLT platforms with the Eurosystem's TARGET infrastructure.

The ECB has also announced plans to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenized securities, with initial purchases focusing on euro-denominated public-sector and supranational securities. This move marks a significant step towards live tokenized market infrastructure, with XRPL-derived technology securing a place among the systems connecting to it.