Clearstream partners with ECB to participate in wholesale CBDC trials featuring tokenized securities.

Deutsche Börse Group’s subsidiary, Clearstream, a central securities depository (CSD), will join the European Central Bank (ECB) in testing the digital euro wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). Clearstream, which operates the D7 post-trade platform, is the sole CSD participating in the initial phase of the ECB’s “preparatory” trials. Jens Hachmeister, Clearstream’s head of issuer services and new digital markets, stated that the company collaborated with Google Cloud to expand the capacities of D7. The trials will involve testing distributed ledger technology for wholesale transactions with tokenized securities and connecting with three European central bank products: Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution, Banca d’Italia’s TIPS Hash-link, and Banque de France’s Full DLT Interoperability. Clearstream will conduct euro-denominated issuances and delivery-versus-payment transactions across various use cases and payment models using real central bank money between May and November of this year. The ECB initiated the preparatory phase of its digital euro research in October and released a vendor call in January. Banca d’Italia and Deutsche Bundesbank have already started working with similar DLT technology. Clearstream, with over 18 trillion euros in assets under custody, also participated in SWIFT experiments involving CBDC and tokenized assets in 2022. The decision to launch a digital euro will be made after the completion of the ECB trials and the adoption of corresponding legislation. Tokenized securities are experiencing rapid growth, with the market for tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds in the United States increasing from $114 million to $845 million in 2021.