ECB plans to use own funds for tokenized securities via Pontes settlement bridge

The European Central Bank said it plans to invest its own funds in tokenized securities through Pontes, a newly launched digital settlement bridge. The platform is designed to connect traditional financial assets with blockchain-based infrastructure and improve settlement efficiency. The ECB described the move as part of a broader effort to explore use cases for central bank digital currency, or CBDC, and to modernize financial market infrastructure. Pontes has already gone live, and its first group of partner platforms includes institutions using XRP Ledger technology. The update was cited by Techub, which attributed the report to CoinDesk. The announcement puts the ECB’s tokenization work and settlement testing into clearer view, while showing that the central bank is willing to use its own balance sheet in this area rather than limiting the project to a technical trial alone.