Stablecoins, CBDCs and tokenized deposits: who issues each, and what you hold.

Three kinds of digital money, in the words of the institutions behind them

The cleanest way to separate the three is to ask whose liability each one is, and the official definitions answer exactly that. (This post is spelled the American way, "tokenized", in its title because that is how most people search; the BIS writes "tokenised".)

Stablecoin

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central banks' own international body, defines it in its June 2026 Annual Economic Report: "Stablecoins are tokens on a programmable ledger that aim to maintain a stable value against a reference asset (or basket of assets)." A programmable ledger is a shared record, such as a blockchain, that can run code when a transfer happens. Software that pays on such a ledger by itself is the subject of AI agents paying with stablecoins. USDC, issued by Circle and backed by the reserves described in how USDC is backed and redeemed, is one.

Central bank digital currency

The US executive order of 23 January 2025 gives a one-line definition: a CBDC "means a form of digital money or monetary value, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank." A retail CBDC is one the public could hold, like digital cash; a wholesale CBDC is used only between banks and other financial institutions to settle with each other.

Tokenized deposit

The same BIS report: "Tokenised deposits are digital representations of commercial bank money recorded on a programmable platform. They confer a direct claim on the issuing bank and are redeemable at par for central bank money of the same currency." Redeemable at par means one tokenised dollar always swaps for one central bank dollar.

Stablecoin vs CBDC vs tokenized deposit, side by side

The USDC figure comes from Circle's public supply endpoint, read on the morning of 15 October 2026; the per-chain numbers are in USDC on Solana in numbers. The BIS's 2026 report adds that 99.4% of fiat-backed stablecoins, by market value, are pegged to the US dollar.

What the BIS means by singleness, and how it rates stablecoins

Singleness of money is the property that a dollar is worth a dollar whoever issued it, because every form of it settles at par against central bank money. The BIS uses it as the first of three tests in its June 2025 Annual Economic Report; the other two are elasticity, money being supplied flexibly when large payments need it, and integrity, resistance to financial crime. Its verdict on stablecoins is blunt:

The chapter illustrates it with "red dollars", "blue dollars" and "white dollars" from different issuers, each a claim on its own issuer, which "might trade at a discount or premium" to the others depending on how creditworthy each issuer is. On elasticity it says "Stablecoins also fail the elasticity test", because an issuer's balance sheet cannot expand at will. The June 2026 chapter keeps the line: "Stablecoins display some of tokenisation's potential to support faster and programmable payments, but current designs fall short on foundational properties of money and threaten financial integrity."

Tokenized deposits score differently in the BIS's analysis. An April 2023 BIS Bulletin by Rodney Garratt and Hyun Song Shin concluded: "In contrast, tokenised deposits that do not circulate as bearer instruments but rather settle in central bank money are more conducive to singleness." This is the view of the central banks' own institution, written as analysis, not law; what a stablecoin issuer must legally do is set by statutes such as the US GENIUS Act, covered in the GENIUS Act explained for merchants, and the EU's MiCA, covered in MiCA and stablecoins.

Where CBDCs stand in October 2026

Most central banks surveyed by the BIS are exploring a CBDC, while the euro area and the United States have taken opposite paths. The latest BIS survey, published on 22 August 2025 and covering 2024, found: "Of the 93 central banks surveyed, 91% (85) were exploring either a retail CBDC, a wholesale CBDC or both." It added that wholesale work is at more advanced stages than retail work.

• Euro area. On 30 October 2025 the European Central Bank's Governing Council moved the digital euro into its next phase. As of 15 October 2026 its progress page says: "If EU lawmakers adopt the regulation in the course of 2026, the digital euro could be issued during 2029." It adds: "The decision on whether to issue the digital euro will only be considered at a later stage once the European Union's legislative process has been completed."
• United States. The executive order of 23 January 2025 states: "Except to the extent required by law, agencies are hereby prohibited from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs within the jurisdiction of the United States or abroad."

Neither entry is a forecast. A retail digital euro does not exist on that date, and whether one will is a legislative decision.

How tokenized deposits are being tested: Project Agorá

The BIS's own tokenized-deposit project, Project Agorá, is wholesale: banks and central banks settling with each other, not a shop taking payment at checkout. The BIS Innovation Hub project brings together eight central banks and more than 40 financial institutions to test tokenised commercial bank deposits alongside tokenised central bank reserves on one shared platform for cross-border payments.

The project page, read on 15 October 2026, reports real-value testing in July 2026: twenty-eight financial institutions and central banks completed transactions totalling approximately CHF 800,000, across 17 scenarios. The page is careful about scope: "Project Agorá is not about building a finished product but rather has delivered a prototype to evaluate the potential of this new approach."

The BIS's 2026 report gives each a role in its proposed design: tokenised central bank reserves underneath, to keep money at par and supply settlement liquidity, and tokenized deposits at the customer interface, where banks can offer new services. By the BIS definition a tokenized deposit is a claim on the issuing bank, so whoever receives one holds a deposit at that bank.

What a business can accept today, and what Fianto accepts

Fianto accepts one stablecoin on one network, USDC on Solana, and no CBDC, tokenized deposit or other token. The customer signs one transaction that moves USDC from their wallet straight to the merchant's wallet; Fianto never holds the money, and the merchant pays nothing, not even a network fee. How that single transaction is built is in how money moves, in the Fianto docs.

Take the BIS's point at face value when you decide. A USDC payment leaves you holding a claim on Circle, not on a central bank or your own bank, and Fianto has no fiat payout: turning USDC into dollars in a bank account is a separate step you arrange yourself. If your customers can pay by card or bank transfer and you need bank money on arrival, those remain the simpler choice. Stablecoins fit customers who already hold them (what a sale paid that way looks like is in what onchain commerce is), or sales where a card processor is not available to you. The practical side is in stablecoin payments for business and how to accept USDC on Solana.