TL;DR
- The ECB says stablecoins and tokenized deposits need tokenized central bank money if Europe’s tokenized financial markets are to scale safely and efficiently.
- Cipollone pointed to Pontes, due for an initial launch in the third quarter of 2026, and Appia as key core building blocks.
- He also warned that without public-private coordination and a holistic legal framework, Europe could build modern settlement rails without achieving a fully scalable tokenized market.
Piero Cipollone’s latest warning lands at a delicate moment for Europe’s digital finance ambitions. The message is blunt: tokenized markets will not scale on private digital money alone. Speaking in Brussels on Monday, the European Central Bank executive board member argued that stablecoins and tokenized deposits still need tokenized central bank money as a public settlement anchor if Europe wants its tokenized financial system to grow safely and efficiently. Without that anchor, he said, sellers of tokenized securities may be forced to accept assets carrying price volatility or credit risk, limiting broader market development now.
Why Cipollone says central bank money matters
At the center of the ECB’s approach is Pontes, a Eurosystem initiative designed to connect distributed ledger technology market platforms with TARGET Services and enable settlement in central bank money. The project shows that Europe is no longer debating tokenization in the abstract. The ECB expects an initial Pontes launch in the third quarter of 2026, creating a channel for market participants to settle DLT-based transactions using central bank money. That timetable also builds on Appia, the initiative published March 11 that aims to sketch a blueprint for a European tokenized financial ecosystem by 2028.
Cipollone’s argument goes well beyond settlement mechanics. Europe, in his view, also needs legal clarity and deeper public-private coordination if tokenization is to move beyond pilot mode. One part of the Appia roadmap is meant to serve as an interoperability standard for assets, ensuring tokenized instruments can move across different DLT platforms through compatible data formats and smart contract standards. Cipollone urged banks, custodians, market infrastructure operators and technology providers to engage with the roadmap and submit feedback, signaling that the ECB wants institutions involved early rather than after the architecture is already fixed today.
The regulatory subtext may be just as important as the technical one. Cipollone is warning that advanced infrastructure built on fragmented rules could leave Europe with modern rails but an incomplete market. He described the European Commission’s proposal to extend the DLT Pilot Regime as an important development, yet cautioned that the absence of a holistic tokenization framework risks preventing Europe from fully capturing the benefits of the technology. That leaves the ECB’s position clear: tokenized assets may grow, but without central bank settlement and a cohesive legal structure, scale will remain out of reach.
