Tokenisation: The BIS Blueprint for the Next-Generation Monetary System

1Introduction

A special chapter of the BIS Annual Economic Report 2025 defines tokenisation as recording claims on financial or real assets, held today on traditional ledgers, onto a programmable platform. Its key value is integrating messaging, reconciliation and settlement into one operation.

2Discussion

The BIS proposes a unified ledger combining tokenised central bank reserves, tokenised commercial bank money and tokenised government bonds, to improve cross-border payments and securities markets while preserving the singleness, elasticity and integrity of money.

The same report argues that stablecoins fall short as the mainstay of the monetary system and, without regulation, pose risks to financial stability and monetary sovereignty.

This is being tested: Project Agorá, led by the BIS with seven central banks and 43 private institutions, targets tokenised cross-border payments, and Project Pine explores monetary policy operations in a tokenised world.

3Conclusion

The BIS Financial Stability Institute notes that tokenisation often relies on third parties such as custodians, oracles and cross-chain bridges, which can create new points of vulnerability.