Key facts
- Global banks completed real cross-border payments using tokenized money in a pilot led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
- The Project Agorá pilot involved five central banks and 28 commercial lenders, including JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered.
- Approximately $1 million (CHF 800,000) in real-value transactions were processed across six currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, and KRW.
- The test utilized tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits for payments and foreign exchange settlements.
- Transactions settled in an average of 80 seconds on a shared ledger, improving traceability and reducing risks.
- The pilot aimed to modernize cross-border payment infrastructure by enabling simultaneous foreign-exchange settlement.
Global banks have successfully conducted real cross-border payments using tokenized money in a pilot program led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The initiative, dubbed Project Agorá, involved five central banks and 28 commercial lenders, including major institutions like JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered.
The pilot processed approximately $1 million (CHF 800,000) in transactions across six currencies: the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and South Korean won. Tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits were utilized to settle corporate, interbank, and foreign exchange transactions.
Transactions settled in an average of about 80 seconds on a shared ledger, a significant improvement over traditional correspondent banking models that often involve multiple intermediaries and separate record-keeping. This shared ledger approach enhances traceability and reduces the risks associated with simultaneous foreign exchange settlement, where one party might send money without receiving the corresponding currency.
The project aligns with a broader trend of increasing adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets in global finance. Unlike private sector stablecoins, Project Agorá tokenizes traditional bank money. The banks involved reported that the platform worked alongside existing payment systems, rather than replacing them, and made tracking payments easier from start to finish.