Tokenised markets are moving from isolated experimentation toward closer integration with established financial infrastructure as institutions test how distributed-ledger-based assets can settle within regulated market systems. The development is becoming more concrete as central banks, market infrastructures and financial institutions explore ways to connect tokenised securities with established settlement mechanisms rather than creating entirely separate financial ecosystems. The broader significance for financial markets is that the long-term viability of tokenised assets depends not only on issuance technology, but also on settlement finality, trusted settlement assets, liquidity and interoperability.
Tokenisation Moving Beyond Isolated Market Experiments
The scale of tokenised markets remains modest compared with traditional financial markets, but activity is becoming more established. ECB research estimated global tokenised assets on public blockchains at about €38 billion in February 2026, compared with roughly €241 trillion in traditional financial assets at the end of 2025. The comparison highlights both the growth of tokenised finance and the large gap that remains before it can become a mainstream market structure.
Much of the development has focused on debt instruments, money-market fund units and collateral-related activity, while adoption remains more limited across equities and more complex instruments. This concentration suggests that the immediate infrastructure challenge is not supporting every financial asset on DLT, but establishing reliable connections for the types of tokenised instruments already being tested.
Key Takeaway: Tokenised finance is expanding from a small base, increasing the importance of building infrastructure that can connect emerging digital assets with established financial markets.
The infrastructure question is becoming more immediate as central banks begin creating those connections. The ECB launched Pontes in September 2026 to enable wholesale transactions in tokenised assets to settle in central bank money through a connection between market DLT platforms and TARGET Services. The initiative represents a move from experimentation toward operational infrastructure, while still leaving room for further participants and enhancements as the ecosystem develops.
As tokenised markets become more closely connected with established settlement arrangements, the emphasis is shifting from proving that assets can be represented on DLT toward making them function reliably within the broader financial system. That makes interoperability, settlement architecture and access to trusted forms of settlement money central to the next phase of development.
Infrastructure Connectivity Moving into Operational Use
The next stage for tokenised markets is becoming less about standalone pilots and more about connecting distributed-ledger platforms with financial infrastructure that already handles settlement, liquidity and regulatory controls. The ECB’s Pontes initiative is a key example, linking market DLT platforms with TARGET Services so eligible wholesale tokenised transactions can settle in central bank money. The arrangement creates a bridge between newer asset platforms and an established settlement environment, allowing institutions to explore tokenised instruments without relying entirely on separate settlement assets or infrastructure.
The move follows the Eurosystem’s earlier exploratory work, which involved 64 eligible market participants across nine jurisdictions and 58 use cases, with around €1.6 billion of central-bank-money settlements recorded during the programme. The experience provided practical evidence on how DLT-based transactions could interact with existing central-bank settlement arrangements and helped inform the infrastructure now moving into operational use.
Interoperability Becoming Central to Scaling
Connectivity is becoming as important as the underlying distributed ledger for tokenised markets. AFME’s 2026 vision for a future European DLT-based financial-market architecture emphasises interoperability between different asset ledgers, settlement platforms and forms of digital cash. The objective is to avoid creating isolated networks that fragment liquidity and require institutions to maintain separate operational arrangements for each platform. Similar work is emerging outside Europe, including Project Agorá, Project Acacia and Canada’s Project Samara, which are testing different ways of connecting tokenised assets or money with established wholesale settlement structures.
Key Takeaway: Eurosystem experimentation has progressed from testing DLT settlement concepts toward operational connections between digital-asset platforms and established central-bank infrastructure.
The regulatory framework is evolving alongside the technology. The EU DLT Pilot Regime permits regulated entities to operate DLT-based trading and settlement infrastructures, while ESMA continues to examine how DLT components can integrate with traditional CSD settlement systems. This indicates that tokenised markets are developing through a combination of technology, regulated infrastructure and established settlement arrangements.