BIS Project Agorá Completes $1 Million Tokenized Cross-Border Payment Test

Odaily News The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stated that Project Agorá has completed a real-value test of tokenized wholesale cross-border payments, with 28 financial institutions and central banks settling approximately 800,000 Swiss francs (around $1 million) across 17 transaction scenarios.

The test utilized tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits, with settlement currencies including the Swiss franc, euro, pound sterling, Japanese yen, Korean won, and US dollar, and an average settlement time of approximately 80 seconds.

Participants included the Bank of England, Banque de France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, and Swiss National Bank, as well as commercial banks such as JPMorgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Project Agorá is an initiative launched by the BIS in 2024, aimed at exploring how tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves can improve wholesale cross-border payments. The BIS stated that the July test was an important milestone, and testing will continue as Project Agorá progresses.