European Central Bank Connects Tokenized Assets to Central Bank Money

The European Central Bank launched Pontes, a wholesale settlement service connecting tokenized financial assets to central-bank money via TARGET Services and DLT interoperability. This institutional infrastructure aims to remove obstacles to blockchain adoption by providing legally final settlement. Separate from the retail digital-euro project, Pontes enables the Eurosystem to link distributed-ledger markets with existing systems. Additionally, the ECB is preparing to invest a small portion of its own-funds portfolio in tokenized euro-denominated securities using Pontes.