PANews reported on March 12th, citing Cointelegraph, that the European Central Bank (ECB) has released the Appia roadmap, outlining a long-term plan to build a European tokenized wholesale financial market pegged to central bank currency. Pontes, a distributed ledger technology settlement solution for the Eurosystem, is planned for launch in the third quarter of 2026 and is a key component of the Appia framework, aiming to enable central bank currency settlement of market transactions through an interoperable network. Appia is a strategic framework for developing the future tokenized finance ecosystem.

The European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board members stated that the roadmap aims to pave the way from the current financial system to future tokenized markets, firmly anchored to central bank money. The ECB has also launched a public consultation, inviting feedback from public and private sector participants, with a deadline of April 22. This move comes as the ECB continues to advance its digital euro project, planning to begin selecting payment service providers in 2026 and launch a 12-month pilot program in the second half of 2027.