ECB Is Preparing to Enter Blockchain Space to Prevent Private Stablecoins from Taking Over Payments

03.09.2026    14:27

The European Central Bank needs to start working with blockchain infrastructure itself to preserve the role of central bank money in the new financial system, said ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel.

According to her, central banks must effectively “go on-chain,” providing tokenized central bank money for settlements involving assets on distributed ledgers.

The ECB is already developing the Pontes and Appia projects.

Pontes is designed to connect existing European payment infrastructure with blockchain platforms, while Appia explores a longer-term architecture for a tokenized financial market.

This is a separate project from the retail digital euro.

The primary target audience consists of banks, funds, and financial companies that need to settle transactions involving tokenized bonds, funds, and other assets using real central bank money.

If such an infrastructure becomes operational, blockchain will cease to be exclusively a cryptocurrency technology and will effectively become one of the settlement layers of the traditional capital market.

Теги:   ECB EURO Blockchain finance tokenization Переглядів:   57