The European Central Bank launched Pontes on 21 September 2026, giving banks a way to settle wholesale tokenized trades in central bank money. The ECB named 13 market participants ready to use it from day one.
Nine of them are commercial banks. Seven of those nine also back stablecoin issuers or ventures, the private alternative to the settlement asset Pontes provides.
Europe’s banks are not choosing between the two rails. They are building on both.
What Pontes does, and what it does not
Pontes connects privately run blockchain platforms to TARGET, the Eurosystem’s payment infrastructure. When a tokenized bond or fund changes hands, the cash side can now settle in central bank money rather than in a stablecoin or a commercial bank deposit.
It is wholesale only, open to eligible institutions rather than the public. Longer operating hours and further features will arrive gradually, with full implementation expected by 2028, according to the ECB.
ECB President Christine Lagarde framed Pontes as part of a wider push to modernize Europe’s financial markets.
“The Eurosystem is working to enable a more integrated, innovative and resilient European financial market in the digital age. We will continue to make progress in close collaboration with the market.” — Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank, in the ECB’s statement of 21 September 2026
Seven of the nine commercial banks are also on the stablecoin rail
The launch group spans commercial lenders, public and development institutions, and the Bundesbank, which onboarded separately. The commercial banks reach stablecoins by three routes.
Qivalis. ABANCA, Cecabank, Deka Bank and DZ Bank belong to Qivalis, a 37-bank consortium building a regulated euro stablecoin. It is still awaiting authorization from the Dutch central bank and has not yet issued anything, according to Qivalis.
Their own or affiliated issuers. Société Générale’s SG-FORGE has issued the EUR CoinVertible stablecoin since 2023, MiCA-compliant since July 2024, per SG-FORGE. Swift used it to settle tokenized bonds in a January trial, Swift said.
Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS co-founded AllUnity, a BaFin-licensed electronic money institution that has issued the euro stablecoin EURAU since July 2025, according to AllUnity.
A global venture. Santander and Deutsche Bank are among 21 institutions that committed on 1 September to form a stablecoin company. It will launch a dollar token first, with “a EUR offering as a priority” afterward, Santander said.
Only two of the seven are tied to tokens already in circulation, EURCV and EURAU. The other five back ventures that have not yet issued.
Pontes launch participants and their stablecoin ties
The ECB’s list of 13 market participants splits into three groups once stablecoin links are traced.
| Group | Participants | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Back a stablecoin or stablecoin venture | ABANCA, Cecabank, Deka Bank, DZ Bank (Qivalis); Société Générale (EURCV); Deutsche Bank (AllUnity, 21-bank venture); Santander (21-bank venture) | 7 |
| Other commercial banks | BayernLB, Memo Bank | 2 |
| Public and development institutions | Caisse des Dépôts, European Investment Bank, KfW, NRW.BANK | 4 |
Source: ECB, Qivalis, SG-FORGE, AllUnity, Santander. The Bundesbank also onboarded as a participant. DLT operators at launch: Axiology, Cashlink, Clearstream and SWIAT.
FinanceTracked found no publicly announced stablecoin project involving BayernLB, Memo Bank, Caisse des Dépôts, the European Investment Bank, KfW or NRW.BANK.
Even one of the DLT operators connected to Pontes is linked. Clearstream agreed to custody EURAU under a memorandum with AllUnity, Deutsche Börse said.
Why the ECB wants central bank money under tokenized trades
The ECB’s case is about risk. Executive Board member Piero Cipollone put the argument for Pontes most directly at launch.
“Pontes brings the stability and trust of central bank money to the European tokenised finance ecosystem. It will give an important advantage to help it scale.” — Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank, in the same statement
Without tokenized central bank money, every trade would settle in an instrument that carries credit risk, Cipollone argued in an April speech. Such an instrument also lacks the finality that only central bank money provides.
Stablecoins are liabilities of private companies, and their stability depends on how those companies manage their reserves, the ECB notes. Central bank money is a liability of the central bank itself.
The same question of which settlement asset to trust runs through card payments, as FinanceTracked explained in how stablecoin card settlement works.
This is not the digital euro people will hold
Lagarde described Pontes on 18 September as “a digital euro made available to banks” for transactions between themselves, Agence Europe reported. That phrasing has led some coverage to describe Pontes as the launch of the digital euro.
The retail digital euro is a separate project. Its 12-month pilot is planned from the second half of 2027, using a beta version without legal tender status, according to the ECB.
The ECB aims to be ready for a potential first issuance during 2029, according to its FAQs. That assumes the legislation establishing the digital euro is adopted by the end of 2026.
The rail has arrived before the traffic
Tokenized markets in Europe are still small. Tokenized money market funds roughly doubled to about €6.3 billion in 2025, but there is “limited evidence of secondary market trading,” the ECB’s Macroprudential Bulletin found.
European issuers have placed close to €4 billion of DLT-based bonds since 2021, Cipollone said in March. Euro stablecoins make up only 0.2% of global stablecoin circulation, according to Bank of Ireland.
The ECB is trying to seed demand itself. It has begun preparatory work to invest part of its own funds in tokenized public-sector bonds, settled through Pontes, with timing still to be set, the ECB said.
Building infrastructure ahead of usage is familiar from AI agent payments, where the rails also arrived first.
The same banks are building on both sides of the Atlantic
The 21-institution venture includes Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. It intends to comply with both the US GENIUS Act and the EU’s MiCA rules, according to the group’s announcement.
In the US, DTCC’s tokenization service is set to launch in October after live production trades in July, DTCC said. The GENIUS Act takes effect no later than 18 January 2027, per the Federal Register.
Europe’s central bank has built a public settlement rail. Most of the commercial banks onboarded to it are backing private ones as well.
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What Pontes means for Europe’s banks
Pontes gives Europe’s banks a way to settle tokenized trades in central bank money, but most of its commercial launch banks are not betting on it alone. Seven of the nine back stablecoin projects through Qivalis, affiliated issuers or the 21-bank venture. The market both rails serve is still thin, with tokenized money market funds at about €6.3 billion after doubling in 2025.
The next signals are Qivalis’s license decision, the 21-bank company’s formation, DTCC’s October launch and the ECB’s first own-funds purchases.
