regulation and policy

ECB outlines three models for putting central bank money onchain

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2News media
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Published
Updated
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1 new report

The ECB outlined three ways central bank money could be brought onto programmable infrastructure: direct tokenized reserves, synchronized RTGS-to-DLT settlement, and privately issued tokens backed by reserves. The framing came as financial institutions continued to explore settlement infrastructure for putting central bank money onchain.

Key claims & sources

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The ECB outlined the same three-model framework as financial institutions explore settlement infrastructure for putting central bank money onchain.
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The three models were presented in the context of central bank money being brought onchain for settlement infrastructure.
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The ECB set out three models for bringing central bank money onto programmable infrastructure: direct tokenized reserves, synchronized RTGS-to-DLT settlement, and privately issued tokens backed by reserves.
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In the direct model, reserves would be issued natively onchain, while the bridging model would keep them in existing systems and connect settlement to DLT.

What it means

Banks, payment firms, and other market participants working on settlement infrastructure are the immediate audience for this framework, because it spells out three different ways central bank money could appear in programmable systems. Tomorrow morning, the practical question for them is which design would fit the systems they are building or testing now, since the models differ in where the money sits and how settlement is handled. (per crypto-economy.com)

What changes in practice is the menu of structures being discussed: one model puts reserves natively onchain, one keeps reserves in existing systems and links them to DLT settlement, and one uses privately issued tokens backed by reserves. What does not change from this description is that the discussion still concerns central bank money and settlement infrastructure, even though the route onto programmable rails differs. (per theblock.co)

Market reaction i

Total crypto marketall crypto assets combined no single asset in the event: read against the whole market
first headline
-0.1% 2 h before
-0.1% 4 h after
$2.9Tmarket cap at publication
12data points

The move was larger before the first headline than after. That is an observation, not an explanation: the market also moves on things nobody publishes.

Coverage timeline

Every piece in order, with the time its news medium declares — if it is not believable we use ours and say so — and what it added to what was already known at that point. Arriving first is not the same as adding something.

first
Oct 2 10:17
+4 h 22 m
Oct 2 14:40
Crypto Economy context
Its angle: intermediation, architectures, synchronized

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