ECB Launches Pontes Platform as Europe Advances Digital Euro and Tokenised Finance

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched Pontes, a new platform designed to allow banks and financial market infrastructures to settle transactions involving tokenised assets using central bank money. The platform went live on September 21, marking the first step in the Eurosystem’s strategy to adapt central bank money to an increasingly tokenised financial system.

Pontes connects distributed-ledger technology (DLT) platforms with the Eurosystem’s payment infrastructure, allowing transactions involving blockchain-based assets to be settled in central bank euros rather than private stablecoins or commercial bank deposits.

An initial group of financial institutions and DLT operators has already completed onboarding. Participants include Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, the European Investment Bank, Clearstream and other European financial institutions and market infrastructure providers.

While Pontes is part of the ECB’s broader digital-money strategy, it should not be confused with the retail digital euro being developed for everyday payments.

The ECB’s separate digital euro pilot is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027 and is expected to run for 12 months. It will test a beta version of the proposed digital euro in real-life situations, including person-to-person payments, physical retail payments and online commerce.

The Eurosystem has selected 36 payment service providers, including banks and non-bank providers, to participate in the pilot. Selected merchants and staff from the ECB and participating national central banks will also take part.

The ECB says the final decision on whether to issue a digital euro will only be taken after the relevant European Union legislation has been adopted. If the legislative process proceeds as expected, the central bank aims to be ready for a potential first issuance in 2029.

The launch of Pontes therefore represents a separate but related development: the ECB is building infrastructure for both wholesale blockchain-based financial transactions today and a potential retail digital euro in the future.