European Central Bank Deploys Pontes for Wholesale Tokenized Assets

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched Pontes, a new settlement solution designed to facilitate wholesale tokenized assets using central bank money. This initiative is part of the Eurosystem's strategy to adapt its settlement infrastructure to emerging digital finance markets.

Pontes will provide access to central bank money for transactions involving tokenized assets recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT) networks. The ECB aims to streamline wholesale financial markets by bringing multiple stages of the asset lifecycle together, from issuance and trading to settlement, custody, and servicing.

The initial group of market participants and DLT operators has already completed onboarding, while additional institutions have committed to connecting in the coming months. Full implementation is expected by 2028, with Pontes initially offering a core set of services that will be expanded over time.