According to CoinMeta, Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), announced that ECB today launched a platform called Pontes, aimed at connecting private blockchain networks with target systems, enabling banks to directly use central bank currency to settle tokenized assets. Lagarde stated, "This is the digital euro for banks," allowing institutions to conduct "faster, frictionless" transactions using tokenized assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Pontes is the first step in the bank's broader Appia ecosystem, aimed at promoting the development of tokenized financial markets, while the digital euro test program for consumers is scheduled for mid-2027.