Weekly Briefing | 25 September 2026
Digital-asset infrastructure moved deeper into regulated finance this week. The Eurosystem launched Pontes, connecting tokenised securities markets with central-bank money while developing towards more DLT-based settlement, and the ECB prepared to invest in tokenised securities itself. In the US, SoFi and Mastercard moved bank-stablecoin settlement into live card infrastructure, while BlackRock-designed portfolios were launched on-chain through Ondo. In the UK, ClearToken advanced within the Digital Securities Sandbox and seven banks completed live tokenised-deposit transactions. Together, the developments show financial institutions experimenting with how assets, money and market infrastructure can operate across conventional and increasingly on-chain systems.
Table of Contents
Deep Research
DIGITAL ASSET INFRASTRUCTURE MAP
Infrastructure Layer | Key Players | What Changed This Week |
Market Infra | Eurosystem / Pontes | Tokenised wholesale transactions can now settle in central-bank money through Pontes. |
Stablecoins | SoFiUSD / Mastercard | Stablecoin settlement is live across SoFi Bank’s debit- and credit-card programme. |
Regulation & Policy | OCC / Bastion, Catena, Agora | The OCC issued three decisions concerning digital-asset-focused national bank and trust-bank applications. |
Market Structure | NYSE / Blockchain.com | The companies agreed to explore global on-chain access to tokenised US-listed equities and ETFs. |
Stablecoins | Binance / Circle | Binance invested $100mn in Circle and entered a new five-year commercial agreement focused on USDC distribution. |
Payments | UK Finance / GBTD | Seven UK banks completed live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits. |
Market Structure | ClearToken / Bank of England | ClearToken passed Gate 2 of the Digital Securities Sandbox, enabling live activity within sandbox limits. |
Payments | Swift Ledger / ACI Connetic | With 17 banks preparing to pilot Swift's blockchain ledger, ACI added a route for banks to manage those tokenised-deposit payments alongside conventional payment flows. |
AI & Digital Assets | BlackRock | BlackRock mapped the convergence of AI agents, programmable money, tokenisation and computing capacity. |
Tokenization | Ondo / BlackRock | Ondo launched single-token portfolios implementing model investment strategies developed specifically for Ondo by BlackRock. |
DEEP RESEARCH
Eurosystem Launches Pontes: Central-Bank Money Reaches Tokenised Wholesale Markets
On 21 September, the Eurosystem launched Pontes, enabling wholesale transactions in tokenised assets to settle in central-bank money. The European Central Bank (ECB) describes it as the first initiative under the Eurosystem's strategic programme to make central-bank money usable in tokenised finance.
For Pontes, the ECB defines central-bank money specifically as deposits held by banks at Eurosystem central banks in TARGET Services. |
The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the national central banks of the 21 EU countries that use the euro. It is responsible for the euro area's monetary system and operates the central-bank infrastructure underpinning wholesale euro settlement. The ECB sits at the centre of the Eurosystem, but the two terms are not interchangeable: the ECB is an EU institution, while the Eurosystem is the broader central-banking system formed by the ECB and euro-area national central banks.
Wholesale transactions are large-scale financial transactions between banks and other institutional market participants, rather than everyday consumer or retail payments. |
That distinction is important in this week's developments. Pontes was launched by the Eurosystem and connects tokenised financial-market infrastructure with Eurosystem central-bank money. Separately, the ECB itself has begun preparations to invest a small portion of its own non-monetary-policy funds in tokenised securities, with those transactions expected to settle through Pontes.
The ECB’s own funds are its investment portfolio, largely comprising its paid-up capital and financial reserves. Unlike securities purchased to implement monetary policy, these assets are managed for the ECB’s own financial purposes, including generating income towards its operating expenses. |
Initial tokenised investments will focus on euro-denominated securities issued by euro-area public-sector entities and European supranational institutions. The combination gives the ECB two distinct roles in the emerging market: as the central institution of the Eurosystem supporting the settlement infrastructure, and, separately, as an investor seeking practical experience with tokenised securities.
The result is an important institutional combination. The Eurosystem is providing the settlement connection while the ECB intends to gain direct operating experience as an investor in the market that infrastructure is designed to support.
How Pontes connects tokenised securities to central-bank money
A securities transaction has two sides: the asset moves from seller to buyer, while the corresponding payment moves from buyer to seller. Putting a bond on distributed-ledger technology (DLT) changes how the asset side can be issued, recorded and transferred, but it does not determine what form of money should be used for the payment.
Several models are possible. The cash leg of a tokenised transaction could, depending on the market structure and participants involved, use central-bank money, commercial-bank money or privately issued digital money such as a stablecoin. Different initiatives are currently developing these approaches.
The Eurosystem has chosen to ensure that central-bank money remains available as one settlement option for tokenised wholesale markets. Its challenge was technological: tokenised securities can exist on DLT platforms, while euro central-bank money is held and transferred through the Eurosystem's existing TARGET Services.
Pontes connects those two environments. Rather than creating a new tokenised form of central-bank money, it links eligible DLT platforms to TARGET Services so that the cash leg of a tokenised transaction can settle using existing central-bank money.
In practical terms, the security can be transferred on a participating DLT platform while the corresponding payment is settled through the Eurosystem's existing infrastructure. Pontes coordinates the two sides to support delivery-versus-payment (DvP), where the transfer of the security is linked to the transfer of the corresponding funds.
The Eurosystem's preference for retaining central-bank money in wholesale settlement is a policy choice grounded in its assessment of settlement risk. In an April 2026 legal opinion, the ECB argued that central-bank money should remain the primary settlement asset for wholesale financial markets and said privately issued settlement assets can introduce credit and liquidity risks associated with their issuers.
Other models are developing in parallel. Tokenised commercial-bank deposits and stablecoins can also provide the cash leg for digital transactions, with different legal structures, risk profiles and operating models. Pontes does not replace those alternatives. Its purpose is to make existing Eurosystem central-bank money usable for transactions in which the asset itself is held on DLT infrastructure.
From experiments to infrastructure
Pontes builds on the Eurosystem's 2024 exploratory work on DLT settlement. According to the ECB, participants in those trials identified access to a risk-free settlement asset as important to wider institutional adoption.
The service launches initially with a core set of functions. Enhanced capabilities and longer operating hours are intended to follow, with full implementation expected by 2028.
There is already a substantial initial participant group.
The ECB lists banks and public financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, DZ Bank, DekaBank, BayernLB, KfW and the European Investment Bank, alongside DLT operators including Clearstream, Cashlink, Axiology and SWIAT. The Deutsche Bundesbank has also onboarded in a market-participant capacity.
This matters because Pontes is not simply a central-bank technology project awaiting counterparties. Institutions and market infrastructures have already completed onboarding and, according to the ECB, an initial group is ready to use the service.
Who benefits?
For financial institutions, Pontes provides a route between DLT markets and an established risk-free settlement asset.
For issuers and market infrastructures, it potentially removes one obstacle to institutional tokenisation: the need to develop a separate private-money solution simply because securities are issued or transferred using DLT.
For the ECB itself, investing through Pontes provides information that experimentation alone cannot fully reproduce — how tokenised securities behave throughout an actual institutional investment process.
What changes?
The important transition is from testing access to central-bank money for tokenised markets to providing it as a service.
At launch, Pontes bridges two technological environments: tokenised securities can sit on DLT platforms while the corresponding central-bank-money payment remains anchored in the Eurosystem's existing TARGET infrastructure. But the Eurosystem is already developing Pontes beyond that bridge model. Planned functionality includes a Eurosystem-operated DLT platform, with settlement finality ultimately intended to move onto that platform, alongside smart-contract functionality and longer operating hours.
That is fundamentally different from architectures built around privately issued stablecoins, and also distinct from models using tokenised commercial-bank deposits.
Why It Matters
Pontes moves the Eurosystem from testing tokenised settlement towards operating permanent infrastructure for it. More importantly, it provides a pathway from today’s hybrid model — DLT-based securities connected to existing TARGET infrastructure — towards settlement increasingly taking place on DLT.
The broader significance is architectural: as financial assets move on-chain, how much of the money and settlement infrastructure will move with them? Pontes represents the Eurosystem’s evolving answer, alongside alternative models based on stablecoins and tokenised commercial-bank deposits.
The ECB’s planned investment in tokenised securities adds a practical dimension, giving it direct experience as a market participant rather than solely as an infrastructure provider and policymaker.
SoFi and Mastercard Put Bank-Stablecoin Settlement Into Live Card Infrastructure
On 22 September, SoFi Technologies and Mastercard announced that stablecoin settlement was live across SoFi Bank's debit- and credit-card programme, using the bank's SoFiUSD stablecoin.
The distinction between this announcement and many institutional stablecoin projects is important: SoFi says transactions are already live on blockchain.
The bank is migrating its full card programme to blockchain-based settlement using SoFiUSD and expects the programme to process more than $25 billion in annualised volume.
A different form of bank money
SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., which SoFi identifies as an OCC-regulated, nationally chartered bank. The token is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars and supported by reserves consisting primarily of cash.
Its legal character matters.
SoFi states that SoFiUSD is not a deposit, is not FDIC- or SIPC-insured, is not bank-guaranteed and is not legal tender.
It should therefore not be conflated with the tokenised commercial-bank deposits being tested elsewhere, including this week's UK Finance transactions.
Both may use blockchain infrastructure. Economically and legally, however, they represent different forms of money.
What changes for merchants?
Potentially very little at the front end.
SoFi says merchants do not need to hold stablecoins or build new infrastructure to participate in the settlement model. The company is also in discussions with large US merchants about stablecoin-based settlement arrangements.
This illustrates an important distinction in the evolution of digital-asset infrastructure.
Blockchain adoption does not necessarily require consumers or merchants to interact directly with wallets, tokens or blockchain interfaces. The technology can sit deeper in the financial plumbing while the familiar payment experience remains intact.
Why now?
Stablecoins have historically developed largely outside the banking system, even as banks have increasingly provided custody, reserve, trading and payment services around them.
SoFi is testing another model: a nationally chartered bank issuing the settlement token itself and using it within conventional card infrastructure.
Mastercard described the move as a transition from exploration to implementation and said the arrangement places regulated stablecoin settlement inside a live production environment.
Who benefits?
For SoFi, using its own settlement asset could eventually provide greater control over the movement of money across its infrastructure.
For Mastercard, the programme provides a production example of how stablecoin settlement can coexist with its existing payments network.
For merchants and other participants, the model potentially allows blockchain-based settlement without requiring them to rebuild their consumer-facing payment systems.
The measurable economic benefits — including any liquidity, cost or settlement-speed improvements — have not yet been publicly quantified.
Why It Matters
Tokenisation ultimately creates a money question.
If securities, payments and other financial claims become programmable and increasingly operate around the clock, institutions need settlement assets capable of functioning within those environments.
SoFi provides evidence that stablecoins can be inserted into existing financial infrastructure without necessarily replacing the customer-facing system around it.
MARKET RADAR
ClearToken enters the Bank of England's live Digital Securities Sandbox
ClearToken CSD Limited, the UK company developing regulated central securities depository infrastructure for the issuance and settlement of tokenised securities, passed Gate 2 of the Bank of England's Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) on 18 September, becoming the second participant after HSBC to reach that stage. The Bank states that DSS entrants cannot undertake live activity until Gate 2.
ClearToken says the approval allows it, within sandbox limits, to issue and settle tokenised versions of existing securities under Bank of England supervision, initially covering sovereign debt, corporate bonds and equities, with infrastructure designed for continuous settlement.
Why it matters: Tokenised markets require regulated issuance and settlement infrastructure, not simply tokenised assets. ClearToken is now authorised to test that infrastructure with live activity inside the DSS framework.
BlackRock maps the “Machine-Native Economy”
BlackRock Digital Assets Research published The Machine-Native Economy: How Digital Assets Connect Intelligence, Commerce, and Compute, examining the convergence of AI and digital assets.
The paper frames AI as machine-native intelligence and digital assets as potential machine-native financial infrastructure, focusing on machine-readable tokenisation, agentic payments and standardised claims on computing capacity.
For payments, the thesis is that increasingly autonomous AI agents may create demand for payment systems capable of machine-to-machine economic activity, with stablecoins and other programmable assets among the possible settlement mechanisms.
Why it matters: BlackRock is connecting AI agents, programmable money and tokenisation into a single institutional thesis. The important question is whether autonomous software becomes a new source of demand for digital financial infrastructure rather than merely another user of existing payment rails.
Seven UK banks complete live tokenised-sterling transactions
Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander have completed the first live customer transactions under UK Finance's Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative.
The transactions included two remortgage completions and a consumer marketplace transaction. The common platform was built by Quant, with EY providing project management and Linklaters developing legal advice and rulebooks.
UK Finance says pilots over the coming months will include settlement of digital-asset transactions.
Why it matters: If tokenised deposits progress into securities settlement, the UK will be testing commercial-bank money as the cash side of tokenised delivery-versus-payment — a structurally different approach from both Pontes and bank-issued stablecoins.
OCC advances three digital-asset banking applications
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency records three decisions dated 18 September: an application by Bastion Platforms Trust Company to convert to a national bank, and applications to charter Catena Trust Bank and Agora National Trust Bank.
Why it matters: Three simultaneous decisions indicate that federally supervised digital-asset banking infrastructure in the US is developing across multiple applicants rather than around a single exceptional charter.
NYSE and Blockchain.com explore global tokenised US equities
NYSE Group and Blockchain.com signed an agreement to explore global on-chain access to tokenised versions of US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs, alongside integration of traditional and crypto-market data.
The proposal includes exploration of 24/7/365 access, but remains a product-development collaboration rather than a live tokenised-equities service.
Why it matters: Distribution is becoming a central competitive question in tokenised equities: not simply whether US securities can be represented on-chain, but which platforms can make them accessible globally.
Infosys and Chainlink target the integration layer between banks and on-chain markets
Indian technology giant Infosys and Chainlink have formed a strategic partnership to develop and commercialise institutional digital-asset infrastructure, combining Infosys’ consulting, engineering and systems-integration capabilities with Chainlink’s technology for data, interoperability, compliance, privacy and orchestration. The companies identify tokenised assets, payments and settlement, interoperable financial-market infrastructure and next-generation financial markets as areas for joint solutions.
The significance is less about a new blockchain network than about connecting existing financial institutions to on-chain infrastructure. Infosys’ role is to design and integrate technology into enterprise environments, while Chainlink provides infrastructure for functions such as moving data between conventional systems and blockchains, connecting assets across networks and applying compliance and privacy controls. The partnership also includes joint customer engagements, go-to-market initiatives and training across Infosys teams and clients.
No named bank, production deployment, transaction volume or implementation timetable is disclosed in the primary material reviewed.
Why it matters: One of the barriers to institutional tokenisation is not the blockchain itself but integration with banks’ existing technology, controls and workflows. The Infosys–Chainlink partnership targets that implementation layer: enabling financial institutions to connect legacy infrastructure with tokenised assets and public or private blockchain networks without requiring the underlying banking stack to be rebuilt around a single blockchain technology.
ACI connects Swift Ledger payments to conventional bank operations
ACI Worldwide is extending ACI Connetic to process payments orchestrated through Swift's blockchain-based ledger alongside conventional payment flows.
Banks will be able to process tokenised-deposit payments using the same operational controls, workflows and infrastructure as traditional payments rather than maintaining a separate digital-asset operation.
Why it matters: Institutional tokenisation may scale through integration into existing banking technology rather than replacement of the entire payments stack.
BlackRock-designed investment portfolios move on-chain through Ondo
Ondo Finance launched three on-chain investment portfolios on 24 September based on strategies developed specifically for Ondo by BlackRock. The products — Ondo High Income Powered by BlackRock (BLKHIon), Ondo Diversified Growth Powered by BlackRock (BLKDIGon) and Ondo High Growth Powered by BlackRock (BLKGRWon) — package diversified investment strategies into individual blockchain-based tokens.
Each token provides economic exposure to a basket of underlying tokenised assets. Ondo says the underlying positions are built from Ondo Stocks, while portfolio allocations and scheduled rebalancing are implemented programmatically. Holdings, weights and rebalances are visible on-chain.
BlackRock's role is specifically portfolio construction: it developed the underlying strategies for Ondo. Ondo manages, sponsors and administers the products and determines how BlackRock's models are implemented. The products are available to eligible investors outside the United States in permitted jurisdictions.
The development extends tokenisation beyond putting individual securities or funds on-chain. Here, an entire professionally constructed portfolio — including its allocation and rebalancing logic — is delivered through a single transferable token.
Why it matters: For investors, the immediate change is primarily in how the portfolio is held and used rather than in the investment proposition itself. A diversified strategy that would conventionally sit inside a fund, managed account or brokerage environment can instead be held as a single transferable token, with its composition and rebalancing visible on-chain and the potential to use the token across supported digital-asset applications.
The more significant experiment may be on the provider side. BlackRock supplies the portfolio strategy, while Ondo turns that strategy into a programmable product: the underlying assets are assembled into target weights, scheduled rebalancing is executed through smart contracts, and the resulting portfolio can be distributed as a single digital instrument.
Ondo says this programmatic architecture can scale at low cost, but neither Ondo nor BlackRock has disclosed evidence demonstrating that the products are cheaper to operate than equivalent conventional portfolios or that investors will pay lower fees.
The broader question is therefore not simply whether a portfolio can be tokenised. It is whether asset managers' investment strategies can increasingly be implemented, automated and distributed through programmable financial infrastructure, potentially changing the operating and distribution model behind portfolio management.
WHAT WE ARE READING (OR WATCHING)
The Stablecoin Standard
Market Infra
The Ethereum & Altcoin Atlas
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.