GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
DvP (Delivery versus Payment)
What delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement is: asset and money change hands at the same time, and why tokenization makes it atomic.
WHAT IS IT? · FOR DUMMIES
DvP (Delivery versus Payment) means the asset and the money change hands at the same time: nobody delivers without being paid, nobody pays without receiving. It is the principle that stops one party being left hanging — and tokenization takes it to the limit: both legs can execute in the same transaction.
WHAT IS IT? · PRO
In traditional markets, DvP settlement is guaranteed by central infrastructures with one- or two-day cycles. With tokenized assets and tokenized money on the same ledger, delivery and payment become atomic: a single transaction swaps the security token and the money token, or nothing executes. The counterparty-risk window disappears.
The money leg can be a regulated stablecoin (EMT), a tokenized deposit or, in future, a wholesale CBDC — the full analysis is in our guide to the euro stablecoin. For the issuer, designing settlement is part of structuring, not a final detail.
01 / Key points
- Asset and money are exchanged simultaneously: nobody is exposed
- With tokens, settlement can be atomic (a single transaction)
- The money leg: regulated stablecoin, tokenized deposit or wholesale CBDC
- Removes the counterparty-risk window of T+1/T+2 cycles
02 / Advantages
- Counterparty risk removed at settlement
- Settlement in seconds, 24/7, without day-long cycles
- Less capital trapped in collateral and margins
03 / Disadvantages
- Requires quality tokenized money in the same environment
- Technical atomicity does not fix a badly structured contract
- Interoperability between ledgers still under construction