BIS Announces Project Agorá Completes 800,000 Swiss Francs Real Value Tokenization Payment Test with Participation from 28 Banks and Central Banks
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced that Project Agorá has completed a real value test, settling approximately 800,000 Swiss francs (about 1 million USD) in tokenized payments.
28 banks and central banks participated, covering 17 transaction scenarios across 6 currencies, including corporate and interbank single and dual currency payments, PvP transactions, and intra-group transfers. The tokens represent real central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits, with an average settlement time of about 80 seconds from initiation to settlement, achieving atomic settlement.
The test validated the feasibility of a multi-currency shared platform, allowing funds to be atomically transferred across jurisdictions in tokenized form; the event-driven approach explores the efficiency of wholesale cross-border payments, benefiting participating central banks and large banks, while the pressure point lies in the integration and scaling of existing RTGS systems.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Project Agorá, led by the BIS and the International Financial Association, collaborates with central banks such as the Bank of England, Bank of Japan, and Swiss National Bank, as well as institutions like JPMorgan, Citigroup, and UBS, to explore the tokenization of central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to support wholesale cross-border payments; it has previously completed prototype development and this is the first test using real value.
The test achieved near real-time settlement without directly interfacing with existing RTGS and core banking systems, aiming to demonstrate that atomic multi-currency settlement can reduce reconciliation friction and delays; it follows paths similar to cross-border CBDC projects like mBridge but emphasizes retaining trust in the existing banking system and central bank autonomy.
This progress mirrors the transition of other central bank digital currency cross-border experiments from simulation to real value; the current global wholesale payment landscape is undergoing a transformation from traditional correspondent banking models to exploring tokenized shared platforms.
Essentially, this represents a technological substitution and restructuring of the industry chain: tokenization and programmable platforms will shift cross-border payments from multi-step reconciliation to atomic synchronous settlement, driving the flow of funds from fragmented ledgers to shared programmable infrastructure.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
- Real value testing is the litmus test for technology.
- Atomic settlement eliminates intermediate costs of reconciliation.
- Tokenization of central bank reserves is the next layer of infrastructure for cross-border payments.