Ter Weel details Eurosystem rollout of Pontes DLT bridge
De Nederlandsche Bank official Bas ter Weel announced that the Eurosystem will launch its Pontes bridge with four DLT operators to enable central bank money settlement for tokenised transactions. Speaking at TradeTech FX in Amsterdam, he stressed the need for public anchors.
Bridging distributed ledgers with Pontes
Speaking at the TradeTech FX conference in Amsterdam, De Nederlandsche Bank official Bas ter Weel announced that the Eurosystem is transitioning from exploratory work to live implementation of wholesale central bank digital currency.
The Eurosystem will deploy Pontes, a short-term bridge connecting emerging distributed ledger technology platforms with traditional settlement infrastructure.
Pontes will go live with an initial group of four DLT operators and several commercial banks.
For the first time, tokenised transactions will settle directly in central bank money within a live Eurosystem environment.
Beyond this initial bridge, the Eurosystem is developing Appia to explore long-term integration.
Private stablecoins meet public anchors
Private settlement tokens remain limited relative to global currency markets.
While initiatives like Qivalis have applied for an electronic money institution licence in the Netherlands under MiCAR, Ter Weel warned that stablecoins risk fragmenting market liquidity without technical interoperability.
Tokenised commercial bank deposits maintain the two-tiered monetary system, but transferability across networks remains unresolved.
In parallel, central banks examine extending traditional settlement operating hours.
Pragmatic bridge beats systemic overhaul
Pontes offers a pragmatic bridge that shields wholesale markets from private stablecoin risks.
Yet patching legacy systems onto emerging DLT platforms merely postpones essential decisions on genuine on-chain central bank money.
Without global interoperability standards, tokenised FX trading will remain a confined experiment.
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