The European Central Bank published the Eurosystem’s roadmap for Appia, a strategic initiative to shape the development of a European tokenised financial ecosystem in which central bank money remains the anchor. Appia is intended to bring together public and private stakeholders to support integrated tokenised wholesale financial markets in Europe. The roadmap positions Appia alongside Pontes as the two strands of the Eurosystem’s approach to tokenised wholesale central bank money. Pontes is the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) solution, due to launch in the third quarter of 2026, to enable central bank money settlement for DLT-based transactions, while Appia takes a longer-term, market-facing approach to exploring how a tokenised wholesale ecosystem could be designed. Appia will assess possible DLT network configurations for wholesale financial services, including trade-offs between a single shared network and multiple interconnected networks, with common standards and European governance as key objectives. Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback and express interest in contributing to forthcoming analytical and practical work, supported by a questionnaire published alongside the roadmap. The Eurosystem plans to crystallise its vision in a blueprint in 2028, with Appia expected to conclude in 2028.
European Central Bank 2026-03-11
European Central Bank publishes Appia roadmap to develop Europe’s tokenised wholesale finance with central bank money at its core
The European Central Bank has released the Eurosystem’s roadmap for Appia, a strategic initiative to develop a European tokenised financial ecosystem anchored by central bank money. Appia will collaborate with public and private stakeholders to support integrated tokenised wholesale financial markets in Europe, assessing DLT network configurations and governance standards. The initiative is positioned alongside Pontes, the Eurosystem’s DLT solution, with a blueprint expected by 2028.