MAS Tests Wholesale CBDC Settlement as Project Agorá Advances Central Bank Alternative to Stablecoins
Oct. 25, 2026 • Deep Dive • Digital Assets
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued tokenised MAS Bills in live trials on its Singapore Dollar Test Network, settling them with wholesale central bank digital currency. An initial S$1 million one-week tranche was followed by a S$10 million tranche scheduled to mature on October 23, 2026. MAS says placing tokenised securities and central bank money on common infrastructure supports monetary stability and settlement finality.
Separately, the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance completed real-value testing for Project Agorá. Twenty-eight financial institutions and five central banks executed 30 transactions worth CHF 800,000 across six currencies, averaging 80 seconds per settlement. The initiatives illustrate why central banks favour wholesale CBDCs and tokenised bank deposits for institutional transactions: they aim to preserve settlement in central bank money and the existing banking system. Stablecoins remain a competing model, with industry participants citing their liquidity and round-the-clock availability.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued tokenised MAS Bills in live trials settled with wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), while a separate international initiative has completed real-money tests of multi-currency wholesale settlement. Together, the trials show how central banks are developing institutional payment infrastructure that differs from privately issued stablecoins.
On its Singapore Dollar Test Network, or SGD Testnet, MAS completed an initial S$1 million, one-week tokenised bill tranche, followed by a S$10 million tranche scheduled to mature on October 23, 2026. MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun told the INSEAD Digital Finance and Agentic AI Summit on October 9, 2026, that bringing tokenised government securities and wholesale CBDC onto common infrastructure would anchor monetary stability and settlement finality.
The question is not simply whether digital tokens can move quickly. For central banks, it is also what backs those tokens, whether they retain their value against other forms of money, and how reliably large transactions can settle when markets are under stress.
Singapore tests settlement in central bank money
MAS’s trial pairs a tokenised security with a digital form of central bank money intended for wholesale use. That pairing allows delivery-versus-payment settlement: the security and its payment can be exchanged together, rather than leaving one party waiting after it has transferred its side of a transaction. In foreign-exchange transactions, a related mechanism called payment-versus-payment coordinates the exchange of both currencies.
Wholesale CBDC puts the cash leg of such transactions in central bank money rather than a private reserve-backed token. That distinction matters to central banks because settlement in central bank money does not depend on the issuer of a private token meeting a redemption claim. The trial does not establish that every operational challenge of tokenised markets has been resolved, but it tests how the money and asset sides of a transaction can operate on shared infrastructure.
MAS had already tested another use of the SGD Testnet. In late 2025, DBS, OCBC and UOB demonstrated atomic overnight interbank lending settlements, with the transactions reflected directly in official books and regulatory filings. Atomic settlement means the linked parts of a transaction complete together.
Singapore is not treating wholesale CBDC as its only approach to digital money. MAS is pairing the wholesale work with a separate statutory Single-Currency Stablecoin framework, distinguishing the regulation of retail digital payment tokens from infrastructure for institutional clearing.
Project Agorá tests cross-border transactions
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) completed Project Agorá’s real-value testing in late 2026. Twenty-eight financial institutions and five central banks executed 30 real-money transactions worth CHF 800,000 across six currencies. Average settlement time was 80 seconds.
The participating central banks were the Bank of England, Bank of France representing the Eurosystem, Bank of Japan, Swiss National Bank and Bank of Korea. Scotiabank formally joined the initiative on September 29, 2026, following the addition of the Bank of Canada to the broader multi-currency settlement effort. More than 40 commercial institutions are involved in Project Agorá, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.
The live test also had a notable limit. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York took part in the initial design and prototype phase but did not participate in the July 2026 real-money transactions. The U.S. dollar was therefore the only currency in the live testing without direct central bank settlement participation. The transaction count, value and speed demonstrate a test of real payments, not proof that the platform has reached the scale of established payment systems.
Why deposits and stablecoins differ
The BIS argues that tokenised commercial bank deposits help preserve the “singleness of money”: the expectation that different forms of money exchange at par. Deposits remain connected to a banking system that ultimately clears back to central bank reserves. Bearer-style stablecoins, by contrast, can trade below their intended value or lose their peg during market stress.
The models also affect the banking system differently. Tokenised deposits retain the two-tier arrangement in which commercial banks take deposits and extend credit, while central banks supply settlement money. Full-reserve stablecoins hold liquid assets against their tokens, tying up funds that would otherwise be available for credit intermediation.
Those arguments are contested. Crypto and payments firms point to stablecoins’ existing transaction volumes, liquidity, round-the-clock availability and lower operational friction compared with emerging central bank networks. Central banks and the BIS, however, cite run risk, fragmented liquidity and the absence of central bank liquidity backstops as obstacles to using private tokens for systemic interbank clearing.
Policy approaches are also diverging. European and Asian authorities are pursuing sovereign wholesale infrastructure, while U.S. federal legislative efforts have included anti-CBDC provisions alongside an emphasis on prudential rules for private dollar stablecoins. The MAS and Project Agorá tests provide evidence of what the public-sector model can do; they do not settle how broadly it will be adopted.
Ramp partnered with Stripe and Bridge in July 2026 to deploy stablecoin rails for business bill payments and yield-bearing stablecoin accounts funded through standard fiat bank accounts. The arrangement shows how stablecoins can be incorporated into familiar payment workflows without requiring businesses to fund every transaction with digital assets. The economics depend on more than the cost of moving a token on-chain. Stripe charges merchants 1.5% for stablecoin checkout transactions, versus its standard card-processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30; neither figure establishes the price of Ramp’s bill-payment service. Businesses receiving fiat may also face foreign-exchange and off-ramp costs, typically 0.3% to 2.0% when converting into local banking systems. Domestic clearing networks and compliance checks remain part of end-to-end delivery. Bridge’s issuance and transfer tools, alongside its conditional U.S. trust-bank approval, illustrate the infrastructure behind those payments—but not the elimination of every payment cost.
StraitsX has opened onboarding for digital payment token providers across more than 100 markets through an expanded card-issuing architecture developed with Visa. Integration documentation published on 26 October 2026 describes a multi-BIN model that combines issuing sponsorship, transaction authorization, compliance screening and fiat clearing. The approach lets participating providers build stablecoin-backed card products while merchants continue to receive conventional fiat payments through Visa’s network. StraitsX says its card gross transaction value rose 40-fold year on year from Q4 2024 to Q4 2025, while cards issued across Asia increased 83-fold. On-chain issuer telemetry recorded monthly card transaction volume of $310 million to $438 million through October 2026. The company’s stated $6 billion annualized card transaction figure is distinct from its cumulative $70 billion in processed stablecoin volume. StraitsX and Visa have also scheduled demonstrations of agentic payments for November 2026.
ACI Worldwide and Circle announced a pilot on October 27, 2026, involving USDC and connectivity to Colombia’s Bre-B instant payments system. The integration runs through ACI Connetic, a payments orchestration platform, rather than embedding USDC in Bre-B’s central infrastructure. There is no indication that Colombia’s central bank has adopted USDC as a settlement asset for the national network. The distinction matters because ACI also supplies technology for Bre-B’s central directory and real-time clearing engine. Bre-B launched in October 2025 and handled more than 500 million transactions within five months. Connetic is designed to bring traditional payment rails and digital asset networks together without requiring banks to replace legacy core ledgers. ACI says the platform can support other digital assets and liquidity providers, so the pilot does not make USDC its exclusive option. The arrangement tests a vendor-level connection alongside an established public payment system, not a change to that system’s settlement rules.
Ripple received final approval on 26 October 2026 for Ripple National Trust Bank, giving it a federally chartered institution for fiduciary and custody activities. The charter does not authorize commercial deposits or loans, and it does not transfer issuance of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin to the new bank. RLUSD issuance remains with Standard Custody & Trust Company under New York State Department of Financial Services supervision. BNY is the primary custodian of the dollar deposits and U.S. Treasury reserves backing the stablecoin. The arrangement separates a federal custody role from state-supervised issuance. It also comes as the OCC implements the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin rules and faces a lawsuit from the Independent Community Bankers of America challenging its authority to grant national trust charters to crypto firms. Ripple has separately announced an expanded partnership with BNY and Robinhood focused on institutional custody capabilities and exploring tokenized trade finance.
Stripe confirmed in October 2026 that it plans to expand its Bridge- and Visa-powered stablecoin card issuing program from 18 initial countries to more than 100 by the end of the year. The planned rollout spans Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. It follows Stripe’s February 2025 acquisition of Bridge, whose APIs connect stablecoin transfers with fiat accounts and bank payouts. Stripe has also made Open USD available to businesses in Stripe Financial Accounts alongside USDC. Its broader stablecoin infrastructure combines Bridge’s conversion tools with Stripe’s existing payment and treasury network and embedded wallets from Privy. Lead Bank supports the card program as a financial institution partner and BIN sponsor. A separate deployment by Ramp uses Bridge APIs and Privy wallets to let businesses pay vendors in stablecoins using funds from fiat bank accounts. Together, the developments show how Stripe is assembling stablecoin services for business payments, while the planned geographic expansion remains unfinished.
Project Agorá settled approximately CHF 800,000 in live, multi-currency transactions during a July 2026 testing phase. The work examined a cross-border payment model that places tokenised commercial bank deposits on a shared ledger while holding tokenised central bank reserves on jurisdictional ledgers. Five central banks participated directly in live-reserve settlement, although the project’s wider central-bank group has since expanded to eight with the Bank of Canada’s entry. The project reports an average settlement time of 80 seconds across six currencies and uses smart contracts to run anti-money laundering, sanctions and fraud checks simultaneously. Legal analyses found that tokenisation did not change the underlying character of deposits or reserves in participating jurisdictions. The findings support further work on deposit-based wholesale settlement, but the supplied research does not establish that the approach outperforms stablecoins. The Eurosystem plans to draw on Agorá’s architecture for Projects Pontes and Appia.