The Eurosystem is moving from consultation to construction on its next generation tokenized financial ecosystem. Alongside the findings of the Appia Roadmap consultation, the ECB outlines several areas where work has already started or is about to start.
The Eurosystem plans to soon invite stakeholders to work on three priority topics: tokenized deposits and payments, tokenized securities and shared network governance. These join the Appia Contact Group, which was announced in August and started work in September, and a planned stakeholder group on standards. The pace of engagement is picking up.
One of the challenges on the tokenized deposit front is the current lack of a pan European legal definition. Piero Cipollone put it bluntly to the European Parliament’s ECON committee, asking whether tokenized deposits would be treated along national lines and fragment the market again, or get European regulation. The same gap is making life harder for the Commercial Bank Money Token (CBMT) consortium.
Central banks have started working on tokenized central bank money and on chain central bank collateral mobilization, laying “the groundwork for future experimentation with the market.” While Pontes already provides cash tokens and RTGS settlement, the features are currently rudimentary and a roadmap of upgrades has already been outlined. The 2028 blueprint won’t be an abstract architectural design. Instead many of the components will have been tested, making the path to production clearer. Cross cutting testing will take place in 2027.
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