BIS $1M tokenized payments pilot pushes stablecoins closer to mainstream

Some of the world's biggest banks have completed real cross-border payments using tokenized money in a test run by the Bank for International Settlements. The pilot, called Project Agorá, brings together five central banks and 28 commercial lenders including JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered. It processed roughly $1 million (CHF 800,000) in real-value transactions across six currencies – the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and South Korean won.

The project used tokenized versions of central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle corporate, interbank payments and foreign exchange trades. Payments settled in an average of about 80 seconds, even though the prototype was not directly integrated with banks' existing payment infrastructure, the BIS report said.

Today's cross-border payments often pass through multiple correspondent banks, each maintaining its own records before funds finally settle. The BIS pilot placed tokenized money on a shared ledger instead, allowing banks to complete transactions while keeping a single record of ownership and payment status. The project also tested foreign exchange payments that let banks exchange two currencies at the same time, reducing the risk that one side of the trade settles before the other.

The banks involved said the platform made it easier to track payments from start to finish and worked alongside existing payment systems rather than replacing them.

The pilot fits into a broader shift as stablecoins and tokenized assets gain traction across global finance. Asset managers have begun issuing tokenized money market funds and private credit vehicles. Stablecoins are increasingly used for cross-border payments and corporate treasury operations. Circle, the issuer of USDC and a public company listed as CRCL, sits at the center of that private-sector push. AlphaScala's data rates Circle's Alpha Score at 28 out of 100, a Weak label, while JPMorgan scores 63.

Project Agorá takes a different approach. It tokenizes two forms of traditional bank money – central bank reserves that commercial banks use to settle with each other, and commercial bank deposits held by customers. Unlike stablecoins, which are issued by private companies, the BIS pilot uses central bank money directly. That distinction matters for regulators weighing whether tokenized payments should run on public blockchains or permissioned networks controlled by central banks.

The project is one of several wholesale tokenization efforts underway as central banks explore how digital money could modernize the plumbing behind global financial markets. The BIS plans to expand the pilot to test more use cases, including cross-border collateral mobility and intraday liquidity management.