ECB launches ‘digital euro for banks’ and prepares to buy tokenized bonds

The Eurosystem launched Pontes on Monday, giving banks a live route to settle tokenized assets in central-bank money.The European Central Bank (ECB) simultaneously began preparations to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenized securities, with those purchases set to settle through Pontes. The move puts the ECB on both sides of Europe’s emerging tokenized-market infrastructure, providing the settlement rail while preparing to invest through it.Pontes connects distributed-ledger market platforms with the Eurosystem’s existing TARGET settlement services, allowing tokenized securities transactions to complete using central-bank money. An initial group including Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale and the European Investment Bank has completed onboarding, alongside DLT operators such as Clearstream, Axiology, Cashlink and SWIAT. More institutions are expected to connect over the coming months.André Dragosch, Bitwise Europe Head of Research, described the system as effectively the “digital euro made available for banks,” allowing financial institutions to settle tokenized transactions with each other while retaining central-bank money as the settlement asset.That chara...