No. 1062 - Electronic money tokens (EMTs) vs tokenized deposits: a comparative economic assessment
The paper compares the characteristics and risks of two forms of privately issued digital money denominated in euros: electronic money tokens (EMTs), regulated under the European MiCAR framework and issued by banks or electronic money institutions (EMIs), and tokenized deposits - a digital representation of a bank deposit issued on a blockchain or a distributed ledger - for which there is currently no dedicated EU regulatory framework.
Both EMTs and bearer tokenized deposits are exposed to the risk of price deviation from par value, as well as to run risk. These risks are more marked for EMTs issued in the EU by EMIs, which currently lack access to central bank balance sheets. From an economic perspective, a bank-issued EMT is equivalent to a bearer tokenized deposit, while a registered tokenized deposit is comparable to a traditional bank deposit; economically equivalent instruments should be subject to the same regulatory treatment.
Full text
-
08 October 2026
Instagram
YouTube
X - Banca d'Italia
Linkedin
RSS
E-mail Alert
