News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
Deutsche Börse Group's post-trade arm and one of two international central securities depositories, reporting €22tn of assets under custody across 60 connected markets, whose D7 platform issues securities in electronic form rather than on paper.
Deutsche Börse Group's post-trade arm, created in January 2000 from the merger of Cedel and Deutsche Börse Clearing and wholly owned by the group since 1 July 2002; Clearstream Banking S.A. in Luxembourg is one of two international central securities depositories alongside Euroclear Bank, while Clearstream Banking AG is Germany's national depository, and the group reports €22tn of assets under custody across 60 connected markets. Its D7 platform issues securities in electronic form rather than on paper, at about 45,000 issuances a week, 4 million digital securities and €90bn of issuance volume to date. Its D7 DLT component took part in the European Central Bank's wholesale settlement trials between May and November 2024, feeding into the Eurosystem's Pontes and Appia work. From April 2025 it offered bitcoin and ether custody through existing Luxembourg accounts, with BaFin-regulated Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH as sub-custodian, and on 11 June 2026 it set out a hybrid post-trade platform to be phased in across 2026 and 2027 that would hold conventional securities, digital assets and cash in one portfolio and allow collateral to be reused across transactions.
Developments in which Clearstream is a named party, newest first.
Pontes went live on 21 September, linking market ledger platforms to TARGET Services so that the cash leg of a tokenized trade settles in central bank money. Thirteen market participants, four ledger operators and the Bundesbank have onboarded.
The Eurosystem published the 61 members of the Appia contact group, the forum that will advise it on settling tokenized assets in central bank money.
Pontes links market DLT platforms to TARGET Services so the cash leg of a wholesale tokenized trade settles in central bank money, with finality achieved in T2 and delivery versus payment run through the Hash-Link protocol. Thirteen market participants, four ledger operators and the Bundesbank onboarded at launch. Full implementation is expected by 2028.
The ECB published on 19 August 2026 the 61 participants selected to advise the Eurosystem on Pontes and on the Appia roadmap, replacing two earlier groups from September 2026. Nineteen seats belong to the Qivalis euro stablecoin consortium or to Qivalis itself. Axiology said a day later that Pontes goes live on 21 September with four registered DLT operators.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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