BIS: Project Agorá Prototype Verification of Tokenized Cross-Border Wholesale Payment Atomic Settlement Feasibility

According to The Block, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced that its "Project Agorá" tokenization prototype has successfully verified the feasibility of atomic settlement for cross-border wholesale transactions. The prototype employs a layered architecture, utilizing tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to achieve "all or nothing" transaction chain execution across multiple currencies and jurisdictions, while allowing central banks to retain operational autonomy.

Legal analysis shows that finality of settlement can be achieved in all seven participating jurisdictions, and privacy protection can also be ensured within a compliant framework. The project is jointly initiated by the BIS and the International Financial Association, with participation from seven central banks including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, and the Swiss National Bank, as well as over 40 private financial institutions. In the next phase, the Bank of Canada will officially join as the eighth central bank member, and the project will advance to the real value testing stage, further expanding private sector participation.