BIS's Project Agorá Sets $1 Million Tokenized Cross-Border Payment Record

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced that Project Agorá has successfully completed real-value testing of tokenized wholesale cross-border payments.

In a major milestone, 28 financial institutions and central banks settled approximately $1 million across 17 transaction scenarios using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits.

The tests involved settling payments in six currencies: Swiss francs, euros, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, South Korean won, and US dollars. The average settlement time was about 80 seconds.

Participants included the Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, and the Swiss National Bank, alongside commercial banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered, and MUFG.

The BIS launched Project Agorá in 2024 to explore how tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves can improve cross-border wholesale payments. The initiative continues to progress, with testing expected to continue.