BIS: Tokenized Central Bank Money Can Revolutionize Global…

The Bank for International Settlements has concluded that tokenized central bank money and tokenized commercial bank deposits have the potential to make global payments significantly faster and safer. The finding carries weight precisely because it comes from the BIS — the central bank of central banks — rather than a crypto-native advocate.

Tokenization of central bank liabilities represents a meaningful step beyond retail CBDCs, pointing toward wholesale settlement infrastructure that could compress cross-border payment cycles from days to near-real-time. The BIS framing of both central bank money and commercial bank deposits as candidates for tokenization suggests a layered architecture is on the table — one where the public and private monetary layers interoperate on shared rails.