ECB Pushes Ahead With Wholesale Central-Bank Digital Currency

The European Central Bank unveiled a road map to enable settling distributed-ledger-technology transactions using central-bank money.

The ECB aims to have a blueprint for the so-called Appia initiative in 2028 and will work with public and private stakeholders to investigate different configurations for DLT networks that could serve as basic infrastructures for wholesale financial services.

In the meantime, the ECB will launch a short-term solution – Pontes – linking DLT platforms and its existing Target services in the third quarter of this year.

“With Appia, we are building a road from today’s financial system to tomorrow’s tokenized markets, firmly grounded ...