Global banks test tokenized money for cross-border payments in $1 million BIS pilot
Project Agorá, a collaborative pilot led by the Bank for International Settlements, successfully tested the use of tokenized central bank reserves and commercial deposits for cross-border payments. The initiative demonstrated that a shared ledger system can significantly accelerate settlement times and reduce risks associated with foreign exchange transactions.
Why it matters
This project represents a major step toward modernizing global financial infrastructure by replacing slow, multi-step correspondent banking processes with efficient, real-time digital settlement technology.
Project Agorá, which brings together five central banks and 28 commercial lenders including JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered, processed roughly $1 million (CHF 800,000) in real-value transactions across six currencies — the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and South Korean won.
The pilot used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle corporate, interbank payments perand foreign exchange settlements. The payments settled in an average of about 80 seconds, even though the prototype was not directly integrated with banks' existing payment infrastructure, the BIS report said.
The project fits into a broader shift as stablecoins and tokenized assets gain traction across global finance. Asset managers have begun issuing tokenized money market and private credit funds, while stablecoins are increasingly being used for cross-border payments and corporate treasury operations.
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