Tokenisation news, 22 September 2026
The European Central Bank launched Pontes, its bridge connecting blockchain platforms to central bank money, the SEC granted blockchain trading venues a five-year exemption to trade tokenised US stocks, and a 21-bank consortium including Goldman Sachs and Citi agreed to build a jointly-owned dollar stablecoin.
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Key takeaways
- The ECB confirmed that Pontes, its new bridge linking blockchain-based trading platforms to central bank settlement, had its initial launch on 21 September 2026, open to banks, central securities depositories, clearing houses and other regulated institutions already using the TARGET payment system.
- The SEC has given trading venues that operate entirely on blockchain a five-year exemption to trade tokenised versions of US-listed stocks without registering as a full exchange, in exchange for rights parity with the underlying shares, publicly auditable trading code, and halting trading whenever the underlying stock's primary listing exchange does.
- Twenty-one major banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, plan to form a jointly-owned company, expected to close in the second half of 2026, to issue a regulated US dollar stablecoin, with a euro-denominated version planned to follow.
- Three different institutions, a central bank, a securities regulator, and a bank consortium are each building their own piece of tokenisation's infrastructure this week, none of them waiting on the others to move first.
The European Central Bank launches Pontes, its bridge connecting blockchain platforms to central bank money
The European Central Bank has confirmed that Pontes — a new bridge connecting blockchain-based trading platforms to TARGET, the payment infrastructure European banks already use to move money between each other — had its initial launch on 21 September 2026. Institutions can choose to settle directly with tokenised cash on the Eurosystem's own blockchain platform, or route the payment through T2, the ECB's existing real-time settlement system, with a technical protocol keeping both sides of a trade synchronised. Pontes is open to banks, central securities depositories, clearing houses, and other regulated institutions that already use the TARGET payment system, and the ECB plans further upgrades in stages from here.
The Investre take: A settlement bridge that lets institutions choose between tokenised cash and existing central bank rails isn't a hypothetical anymore — it's live, launched on 21 September 2026. For Luxembourg's fund industry, where the legal register already sits at the heart of any DLT-native structure, that's a real, dated opportunity to plug fund settlement into the same infrastructure from day one.
SEC grants a five-year exemption letting blockchain venues trade tokenised US stocks
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has given trading venues that operate entirely on blockchain technology a five-year exemption to trade tokenised versions of US-listed stocks, using automated pricing pools instead of traditional market makers. In return, these venues must give the tokenised stock the same rights as the underlying shares, keep their trading code open to public scrutiny, and pause trading whenever the underlying stock's primary listing exchange halts it — all without having to register as a full stock exchange. The regulator is now asking for public comment on how the exemption should evolve.
The Investre take: The US just built a five-year sandbox for public, permissionless tokenised trading — a starkly different bet than Europe's approach of keeping settlement inside permissioned, central-bank-anchored rails like Pontes. European fund managers watching this experiment don't need to copy it, but they do need an answer for why their own model is the safer one.
A 21-bank consortium, including Goldman Sachs and Citi, agrees to build a jointly-owned dollar stablecoin
A group of 21 major banks — including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank — plans to form a jointly-owned company, expected to close in the second half of 2026, to issue a regulated US dollar stablecoin, a digital token designed to hold a constant $1 value. The consortium has grown from 10 banks that launched the effort in 2025 to 21 today, spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and is aiming to bring the stablecoin to market in the first half of 2027, built to comply with the US GENIUS Act and the EU's MiCA rules. The banks plan to follow the dollar launch with a euro-denominated stablecoin, and eventually versions for the other G7 currencies.
The Investre take: Twenty-one of the world's most conservative banks backing a jointly-owned, regulated stablecoin is the clearest sign yet that digital dollars are becoming mainstream financial infrastructure, not a crypto side project. With a euro stablecoin already named as the next step, European fund managers have a genuine opportunity to help shape how that token settles into fund subscriptions and redemptions, rather than adapting to it after the fact.
What this means for European fund managers
Luxembourg's fund managers already have the legal basis for this. Under the Blockchain IV Law, an authorised Controlling Agent can maintain a fund's share register directly on distributed ledger — no transfer agent, no CSD required. Investre was the first firm authorised for this role.
Further reading: Investre becomes the first Controlling Agent under Blockchain IV Law, or The Final Block podcast.
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