On September 21, the European Central Bank and the euro system brought forth a set of concepts that were originally still in the design and pilot phase—a tokenized asset settlement infrastructure named Pontes officially went live, clearly positioned as a “wholesale-level” on-chain settlement base for banks and institutional investors. Unlike the past models that relied on commercial bank bookkeeping, or even stablecoins or other private settlement tokens, Pontes allows tokenized assets to be fully settled in euros supported by the European Central Bank on a distributed ledger: issuance, trading, settlement, and custody are integrated into the same DLT architecture, with parts of the process able to be automatically executed by smart contracts, while the funding leg connects directly to the central bank's payment system. According to Reuters, the first batch of access includes 13 banks, including Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, Société Générale, and the European Investment Bank, as well as four DLT operators (including the traditional central securities depository Clearstream), which in the Pontes environment first gained on-chain “central bank currency settlement positions,” no longer needing to build critical infrastructure around privately issued settlement tokens. As the project is planned to be fully completed around 2028, this on-chain bridge extending from official payment systems is reclaiming the settlement layer originally explored by the market back into the regulatory view of the central bank, redrawing the boundaries of what currency and ledger can be viewed as a “safe settlement basis” in bank on-chain operations.
The Central Bank Steps In: On-Chain Settlement Breaks Free from Stablecoin Dependency
Before the emergence of Pontes, on-chain settlement related to tokenized assets in the euro area relied more on commercial bank bookkeeping or various settlement tokens issued by private institutions, while central bank payment systems remained off-chain, with a persistent regulatory gap of “the last mile” between blockchain-based financial markets. The launch of Pontes directly erased this gap: the European Central Bank's announcement makes it clear that Pontes is aimed at wholesale tokenized asset transactions, providing the capability to settle in central bank currency and integrating issuance, trading, settlement, and custody on the same infrastructure through distributed ledger technology. A report by Reuters more straightforwardly describes this move: Pontes connects the European Central Bank's payment system with blockchain-based financial markets, allowing banks and investors to use euros supported by the European Central Bank to complete transaction settlements on-chain. This is not a peripheral pilot, but rather the central bank extending its payment system “into” the on-chain settlement layer, formally incorporating what was previously spontaneously constructed by the market into its settlement channels.
The change in regulatory dominance is also reflected in Reuters' wording— with Pontes, related on-chain settlements no longer have to rely on privately issued settlement tokens. For wholesale businesses locked in by Pontes, what currency is used for settlement and who bears the opaque risks are no longer decided by the technology community and private platforms independently, but are re-unified by the central bank in the form of “on-chain central bank currency.” Pontes is positioned as a wholesale infrastructure serving banks and institutional investors, rather than a retail payment tool targeting individual consumers, with a clear strategic direction: first, to replace reliance on private currencies at the systematically important wholesale level, pulling back the core settlement activities of tokenized assets to the dominance of central bank currency, thereby re-establishing the risk boundaries and order of regulated financial markets on a regulated, auditable ledger.
13 Banks Connected: Raising the Bar for Wholesale Market Access
On the launch day, those entering Pontes were not startups or native on-chain institutions, but a string of familiar traditional financial names. According to a single source report, the first batch of 13 banks included large institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, Société Générale, and the European Investment Bank; correspondingly, there are only four operators supporting the underlying distributed ledger, including the traditional central securities depository Clearstream. This initial list of participants is almost entirely composed of large regulated financial institutions, defining Pontes as a “settlement club open only to major banks and licensed institutions,” rather than a neutral public chain accessible to any address.
In terms of access rules, Pontes is explicitly positioned as a wholesale tokenized asset settlement infrastructure, with the service targets being banks and institutional investors. The central bank directly provides on-chain settlement services but only opens direct seats to institutions that meet regulatory requirements and hold the necessary licenses. The result is that the barrier to settle using central bank currency on-chain has been raised to the level of banks and other qualified financial institutions: who can become a “direct participant” in Pontes is no longer determined by technical capability or on-chain activity, but by regulatory identity and licenses. For other entities wishing to participate in euro on-chain tokenized asset settlements—whether they are broker-dealers, custodial institutions, or platforms aimed at end users—they can only access this central bank settlement layer indirectly through licensed banks or approved DLT operators, embedding themselves into the compliance systems and risk control frameworks of these institutions. In other words, Pontes technically opens the central bank settlement to tokenized assets, but institutionally locks the entry firmly within traditional financial institutions, making it more like an on-chain extension of the central bank's wholesale settlement layer rather than an open network freely connectable by any entity.
From Payment Systems to On-Chain Custody: Rewriting Euro Market Rules
Before Pontes, the euro market was clearly divided into segments: the central bank's payment system handled the funding layer, clearinghouses and central custodians were responsible for securities custody and bookkeeping, while trading platforms merely acted as intermediaries. Pontes compresses these segments directly onto the same distributed ledger: issuance, trading, settlement, and custody operate within the same infrastructure, while the central bank's payment system connects to this on-chain world through Pontes. Among the first DLT operators connected is Clearstream, which means that traditional central custodial institutions are no longer just “external infrastructure,” but have become active nodes on the ledger. For the entire euro market, this is equivalent to overlaying the “funding system + securities system” regulatory frameworks to run on a single chain, forcing the original division of responsibilities delineated by institutional boundaries to be redrawn on the same technical foundation: which layer of bookkeeping possesses legal finality, and who bears ultimate responsibility for on-chain registrations, all existing rules must be rewritten.
Smart contracts in Pontes push this rewriting to a deeper compliance level. The European Central Bank has made it clear that Pontes supports the automated execution of certain settlement and delivery processes via smart contracts, steps that were originally subject to backend operations, semi-automated systems, and compliance departments are now embedded in code logic. Within the regulatory framework, compliance checks shift from “post-review documents” to “pre-review code,” and responsibility is no longer solely falling on a specific clearinghouse or custodial institution but is redistributed among the central bank, DLT operators, and accessing banks. As Pontes is planned to be fully completed by 2028, existing regulatory rules governing securities custody, bookkeeping, and settlement must provide clear answers in the coming years: whether on-chain automated execution equates to settlement finality, whether embedded controls in smart contracts meet custody and compliance obligations, these questions determine whether Pontes simply “chains” old processes or completely rewrites the institutional landscape of the euro wholesale market.
Stablecoins and Platforms: Who is Pushed Out from the Central Clearing Layer?
When the central bank directly places its money on-chain, the reordering of power at the wholesale layer begins. Reuters has pointed out that Pontes allows banks and investors to complete on-chain settlements using euros supported by the European Central Bank, which means that in the euro-valued tokenized asset market, private settlement tokens traditionally used to function as “on-chain cash” are no longer a necessity. For institutions accustomed to relying on euro-pegged private tokens for settlement and clearing, once a central bank currency-based official infrastructure emerges at the clearing layer, their functions in the wholesale market become systematically marginalized: the safest collateral and the most liquid settlement tools revert to the central bank's ledger, and the on-chain assets at the wholesale end are locked within the extension of the official payment system from the start.
Not only banks are rearranging their seats but various platforms as well. Pontes is clearly positioned at the wholesale end, with participants being banks and institutional investors—not individual retail users—this dramatically shrinks the space for crypto trading platforms and tokenized asset issuance platforms to build a “self-built clearing layer” on euro-valued assets: as long as they wish to access bank funds and institutional liquidity, they must complete settlements through banks or DLT operators already connected to Pontes, returning fully to the traditional regulatory chain from technical interfaces to compliance checks. Regulators have already provided an on-chain clearing answer centered around central bank currency in the wholesale market, which will inevitably change their views on the role of private settlement tokens in the euro area—these tokens are being pushed to the margins, increasingly tolerated as supplementary tools at the retail end or in cross-border scenarios, rather than continuing to play the role of “shadow central banks” at the euro wholesale clearing layer.
The Regulatory Testing Ground Before 2028 and Unknowns
The launch of Pontes has reclaimed the “master switch” for euro wholesale on-chain settlements back into the hands of the central bank, reshaping the landscape previously relying on commercial bank bookkeeping, various fiat-pegged tokens, and private settlement solutions into a single order where “central bank currency on-chain is the default option, and private tokens can only act as supplementary tools,” which means that private solutions playing the role of “shadow central banks” at the wholesale clearing layer in the euro area will be systematically squeezed to the margins. However, this new order is still in the blueprint stage: public information has not disclosed the underlying DLT architecture, consensus design of Pontes, nor operational data such as daily settlement volumes, transaction sizes, or fees, appearing more like a newly opened pilot platform rather than a mature settlement hub. In the coming years, it serves as both a regulatory testing ground and a battlefield for reshaping responsibility boundaries—regulators must answer how to achieve compliance audits through on-chain accounts in the DLT environment, how to allocate responsibilities for technical failures, settlement errors, and contract execution mistakes among the euro system, DLT operators, and accessing banks, as well as how to continually fine-tune rules based on pilot feedback or even rewrite certain regulatory provisions before comprehensive completion in 2028. Meanwhile, as Pontes is clearly designated as the wholesale settlement infrastructure dominated by the euro system, its competitive position in international financial markets will also become a variable: if regulators cannot find a balance between openness, safety, and responsibility allocation in the coming years, the final form of Pontes before and after 2028 may fluctuate between “establishing a new standard for euro on-chain settlements” and “becoming a regional, closed internal system,” and this uncertainty itself is a regulatory risk parameter that all participants must incorporate into their decision-making.
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