Unified Ledger
A BIS concept for a shared programmable platform where central bank money, tokenized deposits and tokenized assets coexist.
The unified ledger is a blueprint set out by the Bank for International Settlements for how a future monetary system might work. Rather than tokenized assets living on separate, disconnected platforms, money and assets would sit on a common programmable infrastructure.
The idea rests on what the BIS calls the 'singleness' of money: central bank reserves remain the settlement anchor, while commercial bank money is represented as tokenized deposits on the same platform. Assets such as bonds or fund shares can then settle against money in one step.
The BIS frames the unified ledger as a concept, not a single product. Its practical significance is as a reference point — many institutional pilots can be read as tests of one piece of the blueprint.
In practice
- Project Agorá, led by the BIS Innovation Hub with a group of central banks and private financial firms, explores tokenized correspondent banking on a unified-ledger style platform.
- The BIS Annual Economic Report has repeatedly used the unified ledger as the organising frame for its analysis of tokenization.
Primary sources
- Annual Economic Report 2025, Chapter III ↗BIS
- Project Agorá ↗BIS Innovation Hub
- The Next-Generation Monetary and Financial SystemBank for International Settlements, 2025
- BIS Innovation Hub Video LibraryBank for International Settlements
Related concepts
All concepts
An independent TokenShares explainer. Informational only; the cited publications are the authoritative sources.