Global banks test tokenized money for cross-border payments in $1 million BIS pilot
Published Jul 30, 2026, 5:34 p.m. | Updated Jul 30, 2026, 5:49 p.m.
Summary points
- Major lenders settled real cross-border payments using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits across six currencies.
- Test processed about $1 million (CHF 800,000) through ~30 transactions that settled in roughly 80 seconds on a shared ledger.
- Aims to reduce risks and costs via simultaneous FX settlement and a single shared ownership record.
Project Agorá
Project Agorá brings together five central banks and 28 commercial lenders including JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered. Currencies tested: U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and South Korean won.
Pilot used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle corporate, interbank, and foreign-exchange settlements. Average settlement ~80 seconds even though the prototype was not directly integrated with banks’ existing payment infrastructure, per BIS report.
Unlike privately issued stablecoins (e.g., Circle USDC, Tether), Agorá tokenizes traditional bank money: central bank reserves for interbank settlement and commercial bank deposits held by customers.
Model vs correspondent banking
Today’s cross-border payments often pass through multiple correspondent banks with separate records. Shared ledger allows banks to complete transactions with a single record of ownership and payment status. FX tested with simultaneous two-currency exchange (atomic settlement), reducing Herstatt-style risk of one side settling without the other. Banks said the platform improved end-to-end traceability and worked alongside existing payment systems rather than replacing them.
CoinTelegraph / IIF notes (secondary)
CoinTelegraph (Jul 31): 28 institutions settled CHF 800,000 across 17 transaction scenarios; average ~80 seconds; participants include Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Swiss National Bank, plus JPMorgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered, MUFG. Project launched 2024; May report had shown prototype atomic settlement; testing continues. IIF Project Agorá page: RVT values ranging CHF 9,000–125,000 or local equivalents; no production timeline asserted in secondary TechTimes analysis.