Tokenisation can improve wholesale cross-border payments: key findings from Project Agorá

27 May 2026

Project Agorá has successfully demonstrated that longstanding inefficiencies in wholesale cross-border payments can be overcome through tokenisation and programmable technologies. Using a bespoke prototype, the project seamlessly executed atomic settlement – i.e. simultaneous and indivisible settlement – of cross-border transactions across multiple currencies and jurisdictions.

The project employed tokenised central bank reserves and tokenised commercial bank deposits – both established and trusted instruments – as settlement assets. Project Agorá thereby confirmed that the safety and integrity of wholesale cross-border payments can be preserved within a tokenised ecosystem.

The Eurosystem, comprising the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the 21 euro area countries, participates in Project Agorá, which is run by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, with leading central banks and more than 40 financial institutions. In a next step, the project will focus on real value testing.

Insights from Project Agorá will aid the Eurosystem’s work on two key initiatives: Appia and Pontes. Pontes will link market distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms to TARGET Services, with a planned go-live date of September 2026. Meanwhile, Appia will outline the long-term vision for a European tokenised financial ecosystem. Together, these initiatives represent a unified strategy to foster innovation, strengthen cross-border financial integration and bolster Europe’s financial sovereignty.