New report maps the present and future of tokenised money

‘Tokenised Money: Use Cases, Interoperability and Regulation’ shows how emerging private tokenised money instruments are competing for different applications, analysing the evolving infrastructure and the regulatory trends shaping their development across the globe. The study looks beyond conventional labels such as stablecoins, introducing a layered taxonomy that captures the complexity of the tokenised money ecosystem while remaining adaptable to structural changes.

“Tokenised money is re-wiring financial services at speed. Our research highlights the variety of use cases being developed by financial institutions, how programmability is creating new levels of efficiency, and the interoperability questions that are increasingly important for the industry to resolve” says Keith Bear, Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

Our research highlights the variety of use cases being developed by financial institutions, how programmability is creating new levels of efficiency, and the interoperability questions that are increasingly important for the industry to resolve

Keith Bear

The ecosystem is diverse, with competing and complementing instruments

With 24/7 availability, low costs, and bearer-like features, stablecoins serve to settle decentralised finance trades, in crypto exchanges and for cross-border payments. Tokenised deposits are emerging as a viable tool for institutional treasury management, while tokenised money market funds are beginning to compete for specific use cases where yield-bearing features are attractive.

Interoperability remains a barrier to scale while programmability drives adoption

Although the core functionality of tokenised money is now clear, interoperability across networks remains unresolved, with different ecosystems adopting divergent approaches. This is acting as a barrier to scalability.

Meanwhile, programmability is enabling innovative pilot applications, in areas such as trade-finance automation and AI-driven treasury optimisation, and its importance is expected to increase over time, driving adoption.

The study sets out considerations around technical architecture decisions, implementation approaches and emerging standards that will determine whether tokenised money can achieve the scale and functionality needed to transform global financial infrastructure.

Digital Assets Regulatory Specialist at the CCAF, Hugo Coelho, says “Regulation is set to play a decisive role in shaping tokenised money and determining which instruments scale and integrate with the financial system. Yet the study shows that, despite growing policy activity, key issues raised by tokenisation remain unresolved – including how these instruments can be used in payments, across borders and within capital markets.”

The study shows that, despite growing policy activity, key issues raised by tokenisation remain unresolved – including how these instruments can be used in payments, across borders and within capital markets

Hugo Coelho

The pace of regulatory action is accelerating, but fragmentation remains high

Despite the rollout of international standards for stablecoins and efforts to oversee their implementation, regulatory frameworks remain fragmented and incomplete across jurisdictions.

The comparative analysis of stablecoin regulations across 5 jurisdictions highlights significant areas of divergence, including in reserve and localisation requirements.

Regulatory attention is beginning to move beyond issuance toward payments use, monetary policy implications and other tokenised instruments, but the study shows that key areas of uncertainty persist.