Tokenized Deposit

Tokenized deposit vs. EMT. The EBA proposes features to tell a tokenized deposit apart from an e-money token (EMT) issued by a bank (Table 2 of its report). Combining them with MiCA:

What about a stablecoin? MiCA does not define "stablecoin." If a token references the value of one official currency, it is an EMT (Article 3(1)(7)); if it references another value or right, or a combination, it is an asset-referenced token or ART (Article 3(1)(6)). The regime applies whatever the stabilization mechanism (Recital 41). A bank can issue an EMT, but then it is issuing electronic money, not a deposit: EMTs cannot be treated as deposits (Recital 9). An EMT holder has a claim against the issuer and can ask for redemption at par at any time (Article 49). More in stablecoin, EMT and bank stablecoins.

What about a CBDC? A CBDC is central bank money. The ECB describes the digital euro as a direct liability of the Eurosystem that would not be based on DLT. Its regulation is being negotiated between the Commission, Parliament and Council, after the Council's position of December 19, 2025 and the European Parliament's of July 9, 2026, and the ECB aims to be ready for a potential first issuance in 2029 if the law is adopted in 2026. For wholesale DLT transactions, the Eurosystem has offered settlement in central bank money through Pontes since September 21, 2026.

Cases in Europe.

• Live case described by the EBA (December 2024): it was the only one identified in the EEA. A credit institution deployed its own private, permissioned DLT to hold deposits and tokenized securities on the same platform and settle them in atomic DvP. The supervisor confirmed, before MiCA, that it was a deposit, not e-money, and the token could, in principle, pay interest. The EBA does not name it.
• Bank interest. In the EBA's March 2024 survey, 2 of 22 supervisors reported one project each, one of them by a consortium of banks. In the Spring 2024 risk survey, 17% of 85 banks expected to use tokenized deposits within one to two years or more.
• BIS Project Agorá. Its report, published on May 27, 2026, shows that wholesale cross-border transactions can be settled atomically using tokenized central bank reserves and tokenized commercial bank deposits. The Bank of France takes part on behalf of the Eurosystem. The BIS press release that day announced that the work would advance to real-value testing.
• Pontes. According to a speech by Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB's Executive Board, on August 26, 2026, Pontes is meant to make private settlement assets convertible into each other, for example to transfer tokenized deposits between banks. That is an intention stated in a speech, not a service described in a regulation.

What it is for and what limits it. The EBA cites programmability and automated transfers as potential benefits, and consumer protection, operational risk and anti-money laundering as challenges. It notes that banks prefer permissioned networks. Between clients of different banks, separate interbank settlement is needed, because the deposit itself does not serve as the settlement asset (footnote 51 of the report). On capital, the Basel Committee's crypto-asset standard, applicable from January 1, 2026, places tokenized traditional assets in Group 1a and crypto-assets with an effective stabilization mechanism in Group 1b, provided they meet the standard's classification conditions (SCO60.6). It is an international standard, not EU law.

Official sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Arts. 2(4), 3(1), 48 to 50 and Recitals 9 and 41; EBA, Report on Tokenised Deposits (EBA/REP/2024/24); ECB, digital euro FAQ; ECB, Pontes press release (September 21, 2026); ECB, speech by Piero Cipollone (August 26, 2026); BIS, Project Agorá (May 27, 2026); Basel Committee, SCO60.

Framework verified as of October 13, 2026. At Unknown Gravity we build the platform, smart contracts and integrations to settle tokenized assets against tokenized deposits, EMTs or central bank money. Issuing the deposit or the EMT is the job of the credit institution or e-money institution; we are neither. Talk to us.