ECB Launches Pontes for Central-Bank-Money Settlement of Tokenised Assets
Pontes links market DLT platforms to TARGET Services, with an initial group ready to use its core settlement functions immediately and broader features planned through 2028.
The Eurosystem launched Pontes on September 21, giving eligible wholesale-market participants a route to settle transactions involving tokenised assets in central bank money. The service connects market distributed-ledger platforms to the Eurosystem's existing TARGET infrastructure rather than introducing a retail digital euro or a private stablecoin. ECB launch release.
An initial group has completed onboarding and is ready to use Pontes immediately. That group includes 13 named market participants, four market DLT operators and the Deutsche Bundesbank in a market-participant capacity. The operators are Axiology, Cashlink, Clearstream and SWIAT; participating institutions include Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, the European Investment Bank and KfW.
The launch is operational but deliberately phased. The ECB says Pontes initially offers a core set of services. Enhanced functions and longer operating hours will be added gradually, with full implementation expected by 2028.
Pontes bridges DLT markets and TARGET Services
Pontes is designed for the cash leg of wholesale tokenised-asset transactions. Its purpose is to let a transaction originating on a market DLT platform settle against central bank money, preserving the role of a risk-free settlement asset while market infrastructures adopt new ledger technology.
The ECB's design page describes two settlement paths. Participants can use cash tokens on the Eurosystem DLT platform or settle through T2, the Eurosystem's real-time gross-settlement system. In the T2 route, legal finality for the cash leg occurs when the corresponding transaction completes in T2. ECB Pontes design and eligibility page.
For delivery-versus-payment and other all-or-none workflows across separate platforms, Pontes uses the Hash-Link protocol to synchronise the asset and payment legs. The system is intended to reduce manual coordination between DLT infrastructure and conventional central-bank settlement without moving the final cash claim into a commercial stablecoin.
Eligibility is limited to regulated wholesale participants
Pontes is not an open consumer payment network. Eligible market participants must have access to T2. Market DLT operators can include authorised central securities depositories, operators under the EU DLT Pilot Regime, overseen payment systems, authorised central counterparties and qualifying regulated financial institutions in the European Economic Area.
That perimeter helps explain why the launch list is composed of banks, public-sector issuers and regulated market infrastructures. The service gives those entities a central-bank-money bridge while leaving access, asset eligibility and market supervision within the existing wholesale framework.
The ECB has not disclosed transaction counts or settlement value for the first day. Completed onboarding and immediate readiness establish availability, but they do not yet demonstrate adoption or volume. Evidence of market use will come from completed issuances, delivery-versus-payment activity and operating data as more participants connect.
Core availability is not full implementation
The distinction between launch and completion is material. Pontes is live for its initial service set, while broader features and longer hours remain part of a staged programme through 2028. The ECB's separate Appia initiative is also continuing work on a longer-term blueprint for an integrated tokenised-finance ecosystem; Appia is not itself the service launched on September 21.
The ECB also announced preparatory work to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenised securities and to settle those purchases through Pontes. Initial investments are intended to focus on highly rated euro-denominated public-sector and supranational debt, but the Executive Board has not yet set the operational details or timing. ECB own-funds announcement.
Pontes therefore changes what is available to Europe's wholesale tokenised markets now: an operational connection to central bank money with an onboarded initial group. The remaining test is whether issuers, trading venues and settlement operators turn that access into recurring transactions as the service expands.