How central banks are testing blockchain-based monetary policy

Why are central banks looking at blockchains?

Central banks are tiptoeing into the world of blockchain not because it is fashionable but because every part of the money-making machine, from settlement rails to asset custody, is slowly being rewritten as code.

The financial industry is already tokenizing money-market funds, Treasurys and even bank deposits. According to the Atlantic Council, 134 jurisdictions are studying or piloting a central bank digital currency (CBDC), up from just 35 in 2020. 

Meanwhile, commercial banks have begun to warn that if they cannot move tokenized deposits across public blockchains such as Solana or private ledgers like R3 Corda, they risk being left behind.

From a central bank’s vantage point, two questions matter:

• First, can traditional operations, such as open-market purchases, standing facilities and reserve remuneration still work if reserves and government bonds become smart tokens? 
• Second, can monetary transmission improve when policy logic is hard-wired into code? 

These questions motivate pilots such as Project Pine, Project Guardian in Singapore, the Bank of England’s wholesale CBDC sandbox and Japan’s multiyear retail CBDC pilot.

What is “tokenized” monetary policy?

Tokenized monetary policy means that the liabilities and assets a central bank uses to steer short-term interest rates exist as programmable tokens on a distributed-ledger platform. 

In such a token arrangement, what the BIS describes as an ecosystem where money and securities share a common ledger, monetary functions are executed by smart contracts, replacing the traditional batch file processes used in overnight real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems.

In practice, each policy tool is expressed as code:

• Interest on reserves becomes an automated coupon that accrues to a wallet address once a block closes.
• Repo and reverse-repo agreements become conditional asset swaps that self-liquidate at maturity.
• Collateral haircuts are numeric parameters the central bank can toggle in real time, with changes propagating instantly to all counterparties.

Project Pine demonstrated all three, using ERC-20 tokens for reserves and securities on a permissioned Ethereum-compatible chain.

But how is tokenized monetary policy different from traditional monetary policy?

Traditional policy operations rely on central bank systems such as Fedwire or the Bank of England’s RTGS. These systems close overnight, settle in discrete batches and require multiple human sign-offs. 

A tokenized system settles atomically in seconds, keeps an immutable audit trail and lets policy adjustments propagate without waiting for dealers to book trades. The BIS paper on tokenisation notes that combining assets and settlement on a single ledger can shrink operational risk and latency.

Did you know? A repo is a short-term secured loan in which one party sells securities and agrees to repurchase them later at a higher price. In contrast, a reverse repo is the same transaction viewed from the counterparty’s perspective (buying the securities and later reselling them).

What is Project Pine?

Project Pine is a research initiative led by the BIS Innovation Hub and the New York Fed that explores how central banks could run monetary policy in a future where money and government securities are digital tokens managed on blockchain-like systems.

Launched in late 2024 and published in May 2025, the project built a working prototype, a “starter kit” for central banks, designed to test whether tools like interest on reserves, repo operations and asset purchases can be run using smart contracts.

The project ran simulated financial scenarios, mimicking both calm and crisis conditions:

• Normal conditions: The smart contract automatically conducted a one-day reverse-repo, draining reserves by posting bids at a pre-set interest rate.
• Liquidity shock: When simulated market stress pushed interest rates too high, an emergency lending facility kicked in automatically, within seconds, helping stabilize rates.
• Asset-purchase program: The toolkit accepted bids, calculated allocations and settled trades between digital reserves and tokenized bonds instantly.

These scenarios were run in a test environment with simulated commercial banks and a programmable blockchain platform. Everything from interest payments to collateral valuation was automated, providing a glimpse into how monetary policy might function in a 24/7, tokenized financial system.

This was not an isolated experiment. Other central banks are running parallel pilots that explore similar ground with their distinct approaches:

• Although temporarily offline as of May 24, 2025, MAS news releases show that Singapore’s Project Guardian has tested tokenized deposits and government bonds in live repo transactions, proving that interbank settlement can occur on a shared DLT without sending payments through Swift.
• Meanwhile, the Bank of England has taken a dual-rail approach. A July 2024 discussion paper stresses that wholesale tokenized money could sit alongside RTGS balances, letting commercial banks pick whichever rail meets their liquidity needs. Governor Andrew Bailey has warned that if tokenized deposits stall, the Bank “must continue to prepare for a wholesale CBDC.”
• On the retail front, Japan’s multi-year programme has entered a live “pilot” phase, constructing an end-to-end infrastructure, from smartphone wallets to a central ledger, capable of handling tens of thousands of transactions per second. The pilot also explores privacy-enhancing overlays, reflecting consumer expectations for cash-like anonymity.

Taken together, these pilots confirm that key features like programmability, real-time visibility, and atomic settlement are no longer theoretical — they work. They don’t yet answer the more challenging question: How do central banks transition an entire financial system to such rails without disrupting credit creation and intermediation?

Did you know? Project Pine’s digital monetary system is built like a three-layer cake: The bottom layer is a programmable blockchain (Besu), the middle is packed with tokenized money and assets (like ERC-20 reserves) and the top layer runs the smart contracts that carry out monetary policy actions.

Why is Project Pine important?

Project Pine is the first of its kind to show that core central bank tools could be rebuilt using smart contracts. 

It proves that:

• Policy tools can be deployed faster, possibly within seconds.
• Facilities like repo or asset purchases can adapt automatically to changing market conditions.
• Tokenization could streamline operations, reduce friction and offer greater flexibility.

Who was involved in Project Pine experiments?

Seven major central banks, including those of Australia, Canada, England, Mexico, Switzerland, the EU and the US, collaborated on shaping the toolkit and defining test requirements. The findings don’t commit any of these banks to adopt such systems, but they provide a solid foundation for future research and policymaking.

What did Project Pine test?

To see how well the system works, Project Pine ran tests based on real-world situations, such as raising interest rates or a government debt crisis. They tried short and long periods, small and large financial systems, tight and loose money conditions and different ways of lending (like bank loans or corporate bonds). This helped check if the system could handle all kinds of economic ups and downs.

Did you know? In Project Pine, central bank operations like paying interest on reserves or managing collateral aren’t done manually; they're handled by smart contracts coded directly into the top “protocol layer” of the blockchain stack.

Practical design challenges in tokenized monetary policy

As central banks explore moving policy tools onto blockchains, they face several significant design hurdles. These aren’t just technical. They’re legal, operational and even philosophical. 

Here are the key ones:

• Interoperability: Can different blockchains talk to each other? Today’s financial system is like a highway with shared rules. However, blockchain ecosystems are more like separate islands, each with its own rules and roads. Public networks like Solana, private ones like Corda, or permissioned platforms like Besu don’t always “talk” to each other smoothly. This can cause issues like payment delays or funds getting stuck between platforms. Experts also warn that if too many users gather around one dominant blockchain, it could create unhealthy concentration, making the whole system more fragile.
• Legal finality: Does blockchain data legally count? Many countries still treat blockchain records as transaction evidence, not legally binding proof of ownership. So, even if a tokenized treasury bond moves onchain, the law might still require a separate “golden record” kept offchain by a trusted authority. Until legal systems catch up, this split could limit how far tokenized finance can go.
• Cyber resilience: What happens when something goes wrong? Blockchain systems run on code, and that code can have bugs. In a traditional setup, if something breaks, humans can step in. But with smart contracts, “code is law.” That’s why countries like Japan are building complete backup plans into their pilots. They’re testing how to respond to cyberattacks, technical failures or even smart contract glitches because in a digital money system, even a small error could have significant consequences.
• Privacy vs transparency: How much should be visible? Banks and regulators need transparency to monitor financial risks and prevent crime. But regular people want privacy, especially when using money for everyday purchases. Balancing those two needs is tricky. Policymakers are now experimenting with ideas like tiered disclosure (more visibility for big transactions), zero-knowledge proofs (which let you prove something without revealing all details), and even “anonymity vouchers” that let users make some transactions without being tracked.

These challenges aren’t deal-breakers, but they do show that making money programmable isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Central banks must work closely with lawmakers, cybersecurity experts and the financial industry to ensure tokenized monetary systems are safe, fair and reliable.

The road ahead

The future of tokenized monetary policy will likely unfold in carefully staged phases, balancing innovation with financial stability.

The BIS Innovation Hub lists more than a dozen ongoing tokenization projects from Australia’s Project Dunbar (multi-CBDC bridge) to Switzerland’s Project Helvetia (DLT-based repo). Commercial banks, meanwhile, are shifting rails: HSBC settled its first tokenized-deposit payment in April 2025, and Euroclear is piloting blockchain settlement for tokenized bonds.

Central banks face a coordination game: Go slow and risk private standards hardening around them; go too fast and upend the funding model of commercial banks. 

The likeliest path is a phased approach:

• Stage 1: Limited-scope wholesale CBDC sandboxes plus tokenized collateral for central-bank counterparties.
• Stage 2: Dual-rail environments where RTGS balances and tokenized reserves interoperate via synchronization layers.
• Stage 3: Full adoption of smart-contract-based policy tools, possibly including real-time fiscal transfers.

Just as earlier shifts like the rollout of RTGS systems or inflation-targeting regimes were introduced gradually to test and refine their impact, tokenized systems will be phased in through pilots, sandboxes and hybrid models before full-scale adoption.

Whether it ultimately reshapes how central banks manage the economy remains to be seen.