The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said Project Agorá has completed real-value testing of tokenized cross-border payments, with 28 financial institutions and central banks settling 800,000 Swiss francs (about $1 million) across multiple transaction scenarios.
The trials used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to process payments in six currencies: Swiss francs, euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, South Korean won and US dollars. The BIS said average settlement times were around 80 seconds.
Participants included major central banks such as the Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea and the Swiss National Bank, along with commercial banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered and MUFG.
Launched in 2024, Project Agorá is a BIS-led initiative exploring how tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank money could improve the speed, efficiency and transparency of cross-border wholesale payments. In May, the project reported that its prototype successfully demonstrated atomic settlement across multiple currencies and jurisdictions.
The BIS said the latest trials represent a key step forward for Project Agorá, with further testing planned as the initiative continues to develop.
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