ECB Launches Pontes for Wholesale Tokenized Asset Settlement

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched Pontes, a system designed to facilitate wholesale settlement of blockchain-based financial transactions in central bank money. This move marks a significant step towards integrating digital assets into Europe's existing financial infrastructure.

Pontes connects blockchain-based market platforms with TARGET Services, the Eurosystem's existing settlement backbone. The goal is to support transactions involving digital shares, bonds, and other tokenized financial instruments while keeping settlement within established euro-area central bank infrastructure.

The project builds on earlier Eurosystem work on wholesale DLT settlement, which saw over 200 transactions worth a total of €1.59 billion processed with 64 participants across more than 40 trials and experiments between May and November 2024.