The Digital Euro Meets Capital Markets: Pontes Goes Live
The Eurosystem’s new settlement service connects DLT-based market infrastructure with central bank money. Axiology is one of four market infrastructures participating in the launch.
On 21 September, Pontes goes live, bringing central bank money to transactions in Europe’s emerging digital capital markets. The new Eurosystem service connects distributed ledger technology (DLT) market infrastructures to TARGET Services, creating a bridge between digital securities and the euro settlement infrastructure used by banks and other eligible participants.
Four market infrastructures are participating in the initial launch: Clearstream, SWIAT, Cashlink and Axiology. For Axiology, participation follows the development of a regulated DLT Trading and Settlement System under the EU DLT Pilot Regime, designed to support the issuance, trading and settlement of digital securities within a regulated market infrastructure.
The launch also brings Pontes into the wider European conversation around the digital euro. While the retail digital euro is being developed as a new form of central bank money for everyday payments, Pontes addresses a different part of that picture: how central bank money can support settlement in digital capital markets. The ECB describes Pontes as a bridge between DLT platforms and TARGET Services, with the cash leg of DLT transactions settling in central bank money.
Why the cash leg matters
A digital securities transaction has two sides: the asset and the cash used to pay for it. DLT can bring the securities side onto a shared ledger, but the settlement asset still matters. Pontes provides a route for the cash leg to settle in central bank money, allowing delivery and payment to be synchronised within the transaction.
That matters because digital capital markets require more than tokenised assets. They also depend on settlement infrastructure that is regulated, interoperable and connected to the existing financial system.
Axiology already supports settlement in euro-denominated stablecoins, allowing transactions to settle on the same day or atomicaly, depending on the customer needs. With Pontes now live, customers will have another option: settling the cash leg in central bank money. The choice of settlement asset can therefore match the needs of the transaction, whether that means the speed and programmability of a stablecoin or the central bank money offered through Pontes.
Three years of infrastructure development
The Eurosystem began its exploratory work on DLT-based wholesale settlement in 2024, followed by the formal Pontes project and the development of its initial launch model. Axiology has been involved in the Pontes working groups as the service moved from design towards implementation, and began preparing for and participating in testing ahead of today’s launch.
Testing for the initial launch opened in July 2026, with user testing a month later. By September, the focus had shifted from developing the model to completing the testing, certification and onboarding required for the first participating market infrastructures. Axiology is now among the four companies launching the initial service.
What needs to happen next?
Pontes solves one piece of the infrastructure question. The next challenge is making sure Europe does not build a collection of disconnected digital markets around it.
Marius Jurgilas, CEO and Founder of Axiology, sees regulatory convergence as critical to that next phase: “The Market Integration and Supervision Package needs to move forward. Delaying it risks slowing the development of Europe’s digital capital markets just as the underlying infrastructure is becoming ready.”
The same applies to national sandbox regimes. If each Member State develops its own rules and market access conditions, DLT-based markets could reproduce the fragmentation that has long characterised European capital markets. Convergence around pan-European initiatives would give issuers, investors and infrastructure providers a larger market to build for from the outset.
Settlement also needs to remain flexible. Full 24/7 interoperability between T2’s digital central bank money infrastructure and SEPA payments would allow market participants to choose the settlement route that best fits a particular use case, rather than forcing every transaction into the same model.
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