ECB’s Schnabel Calls for Central-Bank Money on Blockchain - Bloomberg

The European Central Bank’s Isabel Schnabel has called for central-bank money to be made available on blockchain, according to Bloomberg. The remark places the ECB’s thinking squarely within a broader debate over how tokenised markets should settle — whether through existing central-bank rails or through new, distributed-ledger-based infrastructure.

The significance lies in what central-bank money represents: a risk-free settlement asset. If tokenised securities and deposits are to trade and settle on-chain, market participants generally argue they need access to that same anchor of safety, rather than relying solely on private stablecoins or commercial-bank tokens. Schnabel’s comments suggest the ECB is engaging with that argument rather than dismissing it.

What to watch is the detail behind the headline. Any move toward central-bank money on blockchain raises questions of design — whether it takes the form of a wholesale settlement layer, how it interacts with the digital euro project, and what legal and operational safeguards apply. For markets, the practical test is whether such infrastructure reduces settlement friction without fragmenting liquidity across parallel systems. Until specifics emerge, the remark is best read as a signal of direction rather than a settled policy.