Appia

In 2025, the Eurosystem launched Appia, a forward-looking initiative to shape the development of a European tokenised financial ecosystem. Appia builds on the successful results of the exploratory work on new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement.

Focus Session: Wholesale central bank money: Appia Roadmap for shaping the European tokenised financial ecosystem

With Appia, the Eurosystem aims to leverage the unique capabilities of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenisation to foster a harmonised, efficient European financial market.

What does Appia explore?

With Appia, the Eurosystem will examine how central bank money and collateral services could be provided via different DLT networks and assess how its policy objectives could be achieved in different scenarios, considering market, legal, regulatory and international developments. In addition, the Eurosystem will investigate ways to support the development of DLT networks that function as basic infrastructures with European governance and common standards.

Through a combination of analytical and practical work, the Eurosystem will assess possible DLT network configurations, aiming to deliver by 2028 a blueprint with key findings, recommendations and principles for a safe, innovative and integrated tokenised financial ecosystem in Europe.

In view of Appia’s holistic scope, the Eurosystem will work closely with both public and private stakeholders.  

Timeline

The Eurosystem is committed to continuing its collaboration with the market as the Appia initiative progresses. The Appia roadmap contains more details about the envisaged timeline.