BIS announces 8 central banks and 40+ institutions will participate in Project Agora real-value testing

Bank for International Settlements/Project Agora

The Bank for International Settlements announced that 8 central banks and more than 40 private sector institutions would advance Project Agora from prototype to real-value testing. The prototype had demonstrated atomic settlement capability across currencies and jurisdictions using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial deposits. The project aims to test whether wholesale payments can settle faster and more securely through a multi-currency programmable ledger.

• 8 central banks committed: Bank of England, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank, and Bank of Canada
• Over 40 financial institutions committed to participate, including major global banks and payment providers
• Prototype showed atomic settlement and privacy protections across all participating jurisdictions
• Real-value testing would use tokenized reserves and deposits across six major currencies