ECB Official Highlights Tokenisation and DLT Impact on Central Banks - News and Statistics

May 5, 2026

A senior European Central Bank official argued on 5 May 2026 that tokenisation and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are reshaping payments and finance, according to a speech published by the ECB. The official stated that these innovations could improve financial services and reduce costs, but also carry significant implications for central banks.

Tokenisation as a General-Purpose Technology

The speech described tokenisation as a general-purpose technology that reframes the logic of the entire financial system, unlike most previous innovations that only made the existing system more efficient. By representing assets as digital tokens on DLT networks, the full lifecycle of a transaction—issuance, trading, settlement, and custody—can occur in a single, 24/7 digital environment.

However, the official noted that the gains from such a technology depend on all complementary components of the market adopting it simultaneously. This creates a coordination problem, as no single actor can transform the system alone, and early movers face certain costs with uncertain payoffs.

Architecture and Coordination Challenges

The speech highlighted that the choice of DLT ecosystem architecture involves trade-offs. A single shared network would avoid fragmentation but restrict competition to the services level, while multiple interconnected networks would support competition and innovation at the infrastructure level but risk fragmenting liquidity. Common standards and non-discriminatory access to the network layer were deemed crucial to prevent walled gardens and reduce barriers to entry.

Central Bank Contributions

The official outlined two key contributions for central banks. First, as issuers of central bank money and providers of liquidity against collateral, central banks must offer tokenised central bank money as a risk-free settlement asset in tokenised markets. The Eurosystem, from September of this year, will provide such settlement for DLT-based transactions through the Pontes project. Since the end of March, the Eurosystem has accepted marketable assets issued in central securities depositories using DLT as collateral for credit operations. Second, the central bank acts as a catalyst, having developed the Appia roadmap, published in March, to promote an integrated and competitive tokenised ecosystem.

Risks of Private Settlement Assets

The speech warned that without tokenised central bank money, tokenised markets could expand using private settlement assets like stablecoins. However, this would risk smaller scale, higher fragmentation of liquidity, and lower efficiency. The official stated that stablecoins, if the only settlement asset available, could endanger monetary policy transmission, financial stability, and monetary sovereignty. For monetary policy, a significant shift of bank deposits into stablecoins could make deposits more volatile and concentrated, affecting banks’ ability to lend. For financial stability, private payment means could face sudden redemptions if confidence weakens, with risks amplified in a digital environment. Regarding monetary sovereignty, widespread adoption of foreign currency-denominated stablecoins could lead to currency substitution, weakening domestic monetary control.

Conclusion

The official concluded that tokenisation and DLT-based markets need central bank money in tokenised form at their core. Alternative configurations would reshape monetary policy transmission, introduce new risks, and challenge existing frameworks. The Eurosystem aims to preserve the balance between public and private money in the new financial ecosystem.

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